Fermentation-Driven Transformation of Food Matrices, By-Products, and Medicinal Foods

Dear Colleagues, 

Fermentation stands as one of humanity’s oldest and most powerful biotechnologies, capable of fundamentally reshaping the sensory, nutritional, and functional properties of foods. Today, it continues to offer sustainable and innovative pathways to enhance flavor complexity, unlock health-promoting bioactives, and valorize underutilized agricultural and processing by-products. This Topic seeks to explore the dual impact of fermentation—on both flavor development and biofunctionality enhancement—across a broad spectrum of substrates, including cereal grains, legumes, dairy, meats, vegetables, fruits, tea, and medicinal (food medicine) resources.

We invite contributions that deepen our understanding of the microbial, biochemical, and metabolic mechanisms through which fermentation

• Generates desirable aromas and modulates flavor profiles while controlling off-flavor formation;
• Enhances bioactive compounds such as peptides, phenolic derivatives, vitamins, and polysaccharides;
• Improves nutrient bioavailability and reduces anti-nutritional factors;
• Transforms food industry side streams into value-added ingredients with improved sensory and functional attributes.

Special emphasis will be placed on studies that integrate advanced analytical and systems-level approaches—metabolomics, flavoromics, metagenomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics—to elucidate microbial community dynamics, metabolic pathways (e.g., esterification, proteolysis, lipid oxidation, and phenolic biotransformation), and process–performance relationships. Comparisons between fermentation modes, such as solid-state versus submerged fermentation, and the role of specific microbial starters (e.g., lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, fungi) in directed fermentation strategies, are also of interest.

We welcome the submission of original research articles, reviews, and short communications that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Microbial ecology and strain functionality in flavor and bioactive compound formation;
• Mechanistic studies on the release, transformation, and stabilization of flavor and bioactive components during fermentation;
• In vitro and in vivo evaluation of the health-promoting effects of fermented foods (e.g., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypertensive, immunomodulatory effects, probiotic effects, etc.);
• Fermentation-based valorization of food processing by-products and medicinal food matrices;
• Engineering strategies (e.g., metabolic engineering, co-culture design, pre- and post-processing integration) to improve fermentation outcomes;
• Clinical or preclinical validation of health benefits associated with fermented foods;
• Innovative fermentation technologies (e.g., pulsed electric field-, ultrasound-, or magnetic field-assisted fermentation) and intelligent fermentation monitoring systems;
• Sensory, stability, and safety aspects of fermented products;
• Explore the role of fermentation in developing probiotic, postbiotic, and synbiotic food systems.

By collating cutting-edge research from diverse food systems and methodological perspectives, this Topic aims to advance the science of fermentation toward more predictable, sustainable, and health-oriented food applications.

Dr. Yu Xiao
Dr. Chong Xie
Topic Editors