Traditional, Functional and Novel Fruit Beverages: Cultivation, Processing and Consumption

Dear Colleagues,

Current awareness about the benefits of a balanced diet supports the trends in humans towards a healthier diet. Vegetables, fruits, and vegetable/fruit by-products are good sources to extract bioactive compounds for producing nutraceuticals and functional foods displaying a positive impact on environmental, economic, and social sectors.

Based on consumer demand and the potential of innovation and health benefits, we believe that new functional beverages will be launched in the recent future.

The future of functional beverages depends on the unequivocal demonstration of their efficacy in promoting health. For this reason, key points to design a new generation of functional beverages could be (a) the identification and quantification of promising bioactive compounds; (b) the application of natural preservatives, to improve the image of the naturalness of the functional beverages; (c) the standardization of bioactive compounds; (d) the selection of starters able to produce bioactive compounds; (e) the establishment of proper dosage and delivery systems; (f) the investigation of bioavailability and metabolism of functional ingredients; (g) the study of safety aspects related to functional beverage consumption; (h) the relationship with pre-harvest factors; (i) the formulation of value-added products based on traditional fermented beverages; and (j) the stability of the products.

This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of fruits and by-products as sources of bioactive compounds for the production of functional beverages with particular attention to extraction techniques, cultivation, processing and consumption.

Dr. Vita Di Stefano
Dr. Vittorio Farina
Dr. Nicola Francesca
Guest Editors

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