Fermentations of Agri-Food By-Products for the Development of Functional Foods

Dear Colleagues,

The valorisation of agri-food by-products is crucial for planetary health, while also representing an innovative strategy to enhance the nutritional quality of foods and improve consumer well-being. Agri-food by-products are a source of bioactive compounds, dietary fibre, and other beneficial nutrients, from which innovative food ingredients, functional foods, feeds, and even therapeutic products could be developed. Microbial fermentation represents a sustainable approach to utilising agri-food by-products; indeed, scientific evidence has demonstrated that the use of microorganisms in various food matrices appears to play a crucial role in producing molecules with biological effects on human health. Therefore, selected microorganisms could valorise agri-food by-products by producing specific molecules with high functional value, contributing to the realisation of functional foods, feeds, and ingredients. In addition, the definition of a postbiotic—“a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host”—reported by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics in 2021 opens new perspectives for the development of functional foods, feeds, and ingredients by exploiting microorganisms and provides an additional tool for the valorisation of by-products. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to provide a platform for the publication of valuable articles related to microbial fermentation strategies used to valorise agri-food by-products, realising innovative functional foods, feeds, or ingredients. The fermentation strategies considered in this Special Issue may range from solid- to liquid-state ones, and may include the use of bacteria, yeasts, and fungi, without preclusions.

Dr. Simona Guerrini
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-blind 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.