The innovations introduced in the food industry mainly focused on the production of functional food products. A food can be regarded as functional if it satisfactorily demonstrates to improve beneficially one or more target functions in the body, beyond the adequate nutritional effects. In this context, probiotic foods are considered a significant category of functional foods and they are delivered mainly through dairy products.

However, the growing demand for new probiotic foods worldwide has stimulated the development also of nondairy products, mainly exploring fruit juice as a medium for probiotics. Likewise, probiotic beverages based on fruit and vegetable juices are considered as an attractive option and they have been reported as novel suitable carrier mediums for probiotic bacteria.

Fermented fruits and vegetables are vital foods of choice due to their excellent functional and nutritional properties aided by fermenting microorganisms, and novel bioactive compounds from these foods are an emerging area of research showing great promise. In addition, fruit juices and beverages market is one of the faster growing worldwide.

On the other hand the viability of probiotic microorganisms is a challenge. Proper selection of a probiotic microorganism is crucial due to the acidic environment that fruit matrices exhibit. Likewise, retaining the viability and the activity of probiotics in fruit juices to the end of shelf-life is critical.

Our understanding of the ecological roles of certain probiotic during fermentation of fruit juices is relatively limited. In addition, there is a lack of evidence regarding the role of various constituents of fruit juices as promoting or inhibitor agents for probiotics growth and activity. Finally, there is a scarcity of information regarding the impact of probiotics applied for fruit juices fermentation on organoleptic properties of the final product.

This Research Topic will serve as a forum to gather the latest information on the recent advances on quality assurance and assessment of fermented fruit juices with probiotic lactic acid bacteria such as:

- Blockers to select proper probiotic microorganisms;
- Challenges faced to retain the viability and the activity of probiotics in fruit juices to the end of shelf-life;
- Role of various constituents of fruit juices as promoting or inhibiting agents for probiotics growth and activity;
- Production of certain metabolites through fermentation of fruit juices with health benefits .

We welcome original research papers, reviews, perspectives and opinion papers exploring these topics from microbial, chemical, and molecular perspectives.

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Frontiers in Microbiology

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