Advances in Fermented Foods and Beverages, 2nd Edition

A Special Issue of Fermentation (ISSN 2311-5637) belonging to the section "Fermentation for Food and Beverages".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2026 | Viewed by 1269

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Department of Exact Sciences, Faculty of Horticulture, Ion Ionescu de la Brad Iasi University of Life Sciences, 3 M. Sadoveanu Alley, 700490 Iasi, Romania
Interests: chemistry and authenticity of wine; chemistry and characterization of foods bioactive compounds; authenticity of food products; recovery of bioactive compounds from food industry waste
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fermented foods and beverages have been integral to the human diet since the dawn of civilization. These products are broadly characterized by their production through controlled microbial activity and enzymatic transformations of key food components. Food fermentations are classified based on the primary metabolites and microorganisms involved, such as alcohol, carbon dioxide, lactic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, ammonia, and fatty acids. Alternatively, they can be categorized by the substrates used, which include meats, fish, dairy products, vegetables, soybeans and other legumes, cereals, and starchy roots, as well as grapes and various other fruits. Raw materials rich in monosaccharides, disaccharides, or starch are typically fermented by yeasts or lactic acid bacteria. Molds and Bacillus species are often utilized for starch saccharification, protein hydrolysis, or as secondary agents during ripening after the initial fermentation. The wide range of combinations between foods and microorganisms has led to the creation of thousands of unique fermented foods and beverages. Despite their historical significance and widespread appeal, the industrialization and standardization of food production over the past century have diminished the diversity of fermented products. In recent years, however, these foods have experienced a resurgence in Western diets, particularly those that value artisanal production methods. This renewed interest is driven in part by the potential health benefits associated with fermented foods.

In this Special Issue, we invite researchers to contribute to enhancing the existing literature with original research and review articles on the following topics:

  • Investigations of the historical significance of fermentation;
  • Characterizations of microbial and enzymatic processes;
  • The exploration of factors contributing to consumer preferences for traditional and health-conscious food products;
  • The development of new fermented beverages or foods;
  • Fermentation of by-products derived from food processing industries;
  • The identification and characterization of bioactive compounds released during the fermentation process.

Dr. Camelia Elena Luchian
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fermentation is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • health promotion
  • probiotics
  • bioactive peptides
  • functional foods
  • microbial fermentation
  • anticarcinogenic
  • cardiovascular disease
  • antimicrobial effect
  • lactic acid bacteria
  • nutraceuticals

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2546 KB  
Article
Agave Species Influence the Taxonomic and Predicted Functional Structure of Traditional Pulque Inoculum Microbiomes
by Griselda Méndez-Marcial, José Alfredo Carrillo-Salazar, Alejandra Miranda-Carrazco and Martha Hernández-Rodríguez
Fermentation 2026, 12(9), 419; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation12090419 - 2 Sep 2026
Viewed by 288
Abstract
Pulque is a traditional Mexican beverage produced by the spontaneous fermentation of “aguamiel”, the sap of several Agave species. Fermentation is driven by adding a previously fermented inoculum, locally known as “semilla”, whose microbial community contributes to the sensory and physicochemical properties of [...] Read more.
Pulque is a traditional Mexican beverage produced by the spontaneous fermentation of “aguamiel”, the sap of several Agave species. Fermentation is driven by adding a previously fermented inoculum, locally known as “semilla”, whose microbial community contributes to the sensory and physicochemical properties of the beverage. The objective of this study was to provide a preliminary characterization of the microbial taxonomic composition and functional potential of pulque inoculant prepared from Agave mapisaga and Agave salmiana using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Six inoculum samples were sequenced on the DNBSEQ using 150 bp paired-end reads. Metagenomic DNA was extracted using a CTAB-based protocol and analyzed in the Galaxy platform. The workflow included quality filtering, host-sequence removal, taxonomic classification with Kraken2, assembly with MEGAHIT, and functional annotation with eggNOG Mapper. Bacterial communities in inoculum from A. mapisaga and A. salmiana sap were dominated by Acetobacter (68.1% and 58.3%) and Leuconostoc (19.5% and 21.9%). Komagataeibacter was more abundant in A. mapisaga inoculum (3.8%), whereas Zymomonas was more abundant in A. salmiana inoculum (11.7%). The greatest species-level difference was observed for Zymomonas mobilis, whose mean relative abundance was 6.4-fold higher in A. salmiana. Fungal communities were dominated by Saccharomyces (91.4% and 72.7%) and Kluyveromyces (6.6% and 25.5%) in A. mapisaga and A. salmiana, respectively. Across all replicates, the most abundant species were Acetobacter sp. AC2005 (23.9%), Saccharomyces paradoxus (17.0%), and Zymomonas mobilis (12.9%), together accounting for approximately 54% of the total relative abundance. Kluyveromyces marxianus was 3.9-fold more abundant in A. salmiana inoculum, whereas Saccharomyces paradoxus was 1.26-fold more abundant in A. mapisaga inoculum. Alpha-diversity analysis indicated higher bacterial diversity in A. mapisaga inoculum, with a Shannon index of 2.74 and 35 exclusive species, whereas A. salmiana inoculum showed greater fungal diversity, with a Shannon index of 0.68. These differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). However, beta-diversity analysis suggested substantial separation between the microbial communities associated with the two Agave species (R2 ≈ 0.92). Functional annotation identified genes potentially associated with carbohydrate metabolism, sucrose degradation, and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. These findings suggest that the agave species used as the sap source may influence the taxonomic composition and functional potential of microbial communities involved in pulque fermentation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fermented Foods and Beverages, 2nd Edition)
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16 pages, 3438 KB  
Article
Regulatory Mechanisms of Issatchenkia orientalis Y1 on Microbial Community Assembly and Potential Functions in Fermented Grains of Strong-Flavor Baijiu
by Jingxin Jiang, Mingyao Wang, Huibo Luo and Dan Huang
Fermentation 2026, 12(6), 258; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation12060258 - 26 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 469
Abstract
Issatchenkia orientalis Y1 is an important functional microorganism during the fermentation of strong-flavor Baijiu and may influence microbial community structure, community assembly mechanisms, and microbial functional potential predicted from sequencing data. In this study, a mixed-culture fermentation system was established using fermented grains [...] Read more.
Issatchenkia orientalis Y1 is an important functional microorganism during the fermentation of strong-flavor Baijiu and may influence microbial community structure, community assembly mechanisms, and microbial functional potential predicted from sequencing data. In this study, a mixed-culture fermentation system was established using fermented grains and Huangshui from strong-flavor Baijiu production. I. orientalis Y1, isolated from fermented grains, was inoculated into this system as a perturbation treatment to investigate its effects on microbial diversity, community composition, and functional profiles, as well as its influence on microbial community assembly pathways. The results showed that inoculation with I. orientalis Y1 significantly altered microbial diversity and increased community complexity. The relative abundances of Paenibacillus, Aspergillus, and Acetobacter decreased, with the peak abundance of Paenibacillus declining from 62.8% to 40.2% and that of Acetobacter decreasing from 27.8% to 19.1%, while Aspergillus remained consistently less abundant than in the control group throughout fermentation. In contrast, the relative abundances of Issatchenkia and Lactobacillus increased, with their peak abundances rising from 15.0% to 23.9% and from 7.6% to 27.0%, respectively. In addition, it increased the contribution of deterministic processes in community assembly, with the deterministic proportion rising from 31.1% to 35.5% in bacterial communities and from 28.4% to 48.8% in fungal communities, while the contribution of stochastic processes decreased. These changes suggest that the microbial community became more controllable and functionally more stable after inoculation. Meanwhile, the overall predicted metabolic activity of the microbial community declined. In conclusion, the addition of I. orientalis Y1 reshaped microbial community structure, influenced microbial community assembly processes, and altered the correlations between dominant microorganisms and metabolic pathways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Fermented Foods and Beverages, 2nd Edition)
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