About this Research Topic

Background

The fermentation process applied to foodstuff production is a widely known technique used since 6000 BC for wine, bread, and dairy products. The substantial development of industrial processes during the post-war period allowed significant changes in food industry practice, resulting in the sensorial quality improvement, optimization of fermentation processes, and microbiological safety of the final products. However, this progress was limited to alcoholic beverages, meat, bakery, and dairy sectors; while economically relevant, fermented products from indigenous communities and developing countries still apply rudimentary methods of production, without any type of control or standardization.

The complex composition and microbial dynamics of these fermentations combined with the low investment by sectors such as coffee, cocoa, and foods based on fermented milk, legumes, cereal, and tubers, can be listed as contributing factors for this technological lag. However, the significant advances in the identification of microorganisms, development of starter cultures, and profitability gained by the increase in the quality and safety of minimally controlled products, are dictating the dynamics of fermented foods and beverages previously produced by rudimentary techniques.

The purpose of this Research Topic is to publish novel results over the benefits and improvements, in quality and safety, of the standardization of rudimentary processes in the food industry. This encompasses the monitoring and dynamics of the indigenous microbiota, development and application of starter cultures, and the optimization of fermentation conditions. This Research Topic aims to promote comprehensive discussions and deepen the existent knowledge of the functionality of starter cultures over the sensorial quality and technological aspects of fermented foods and beverages from different regions around the globe.

We welcome authors to contribute Original Research, Reviews or Mini Reviews, and Opinion articles covering, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Microbial diversity research, including culture-dependent and independent identification techniques, microbial dynamics, and ecological interactions

• Impacts of the indigenous microbiota over the final quality of the fermented product using robust qualitative and quantitative techniques, such as metabolomics and transcriptomics

• Selection of starter cultures based on sensorial and technological aspects (e.g. stress tolerance or reduction of required fermentation time) and its further application

• Improvement of the fermentation process

• Opinions and perspectives concerning the standardization of traditional fermented food and beverages

• Safety issues regarding the rudimentary fermentation process of economically relevant fermented products such as coffee, cocoa, kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, pidan, tempe, dawadawa, ogiri/ogili, kefir, sourdough etc.

Keywords: Microbial Diversity, Starter culture, Process Optimization, Fermented product, Lactic acid bacteria, Yeast, Filamentous Fungi, Bioreactor, Food Pathogens

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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