The Future of Fermented Foods: Trends in Microbial Diversity and Functional Benefits
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutraceuticals, Functional Foods, and Novel Foods".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 1811
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food microbiology; probiotic; fermented food microorganism; food preservation; fish products
Interests: probiotic; microbial biofilm; food microbiology; food fermentation; seafood
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Fermentation is an ancient biological process that improves food safety through the microbial metabolism involved in biochemical transformations. Substrates are converted into end products such as organic acids, alcohols, carbon dioxide, aldehydes, ketones, and esters. Fermentation leads to the production of SCFAs (short-chain fatty acids), vitamins K2 and B12, exopolysaccharides, and peptides, which can improve nutrient availability and digestibility, promote probiotic activity, and enhance food flavour, taste, and texture. Fermented foods, therefore, are a rich source of strains with biotechnological potential that can provide new tools with which to produce food. Fermented food research is focused on developing new products with improved functional and technological properties. Characterising microbial communities and their interactions with the food matrix and understanding the mechanisms underlying the health benefits of fermented foods have also attracted the attention of research groups worldwide.
The aim is to discuss the most important topics related to recent developments in research on fermented foods and the impact of microbial metabolism on the nutritional and functional quality of foods. Recent developments and advances in the use of fermentation to enhance the health-promoting effects of foods and ingredients will be highlighted in this Special Issue. Contributions will consider novel strains, the development of fermentation processes using milk, cereals/pulses, tea, vegetables, meat, and fish as raw materials, and the impact of fermentation on health benefits, chemical profile, microbiota, and technological and sensory properties. These include the development of new functional fermented foods and drinks, microbial mapping, and the acquisition of custom strains for product improvement. For this Special Issue, we welcome original research articles and reviews of studies that address the scientific questions and research methodologies outlined above.
Dr. Angela Racioppo
Dr. Barbara Speranza
Guest Editors
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2900 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
- food microorganisms
- food fermentation
- food quality
- food nutrition
- microbial diversity
- health benefits
- food flavour
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