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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Innovative food beverages from plant, animal, and microorganism sources are being developed worldwide. In particular, plant-based milk alternative and fermented non-alcoholic beverages are a growing segment of functional beverages markets across the globe. The development of these new trends is faced with some technological issues related either to processing or preservation, and efforts are required to prepare new products that are palatable and nutritionally adequate. Innovative and advanced processing technologies such as ultra-high-temperature treatment, ultra-high-pressure homogenization, pulsed electric field processing, and encapsulation techniques are being researched for tackling the problems related to increasing shelf life, enhancing emulsion stability, and ensuring the nutritional completeness and sensory acceptability of the final products. Advanced technologies such as ultrasound, chromatography, spectroscopy, and electrochemical biosensor approaches have been employed in the analysis and quality assessment of these new products.

This Special Issue encourages authors to submit original research articles or comprehensive review papers addressing new methods and technologies used in the characterization of different beverages from different types of food sources. We welcome papers discussing novel processing technologies from the perspectives of food safety, sustainability, process engineering, (bio)chemical changes, health, nutrition, and sensory issues. Papers investigating the impact of raw materials, fermentation processes, bioactive compounds incorporation, and packaging on the nutritional and sensory quality of new beverages are also encouraged.

Dr. Elsa F. Vieira
Dr. Cristina Soares
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

Plant-Based Milk Alternative Beverages
Fermented Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Functional Beverages
Sensory Analysis
Analysis and Quality Assessment
Encapsulation
Ultrasounds
Chromatography
Spectroscopy

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2078 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An In Vitro Protocol to Study the Modulatory Effects of a Food or Biocompound on Human Gut Microbiome and Metabolome

by Carles Rosés, Juan Antonio Nieto, Blanca Viadel, Elisa Gallego, Ana Romo-Hualde, Sergio Streitenberger, Fermín I. Milagro and Anna Barceló

Foods 2021, 10(12), 3020; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10123020 - 5 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2232

Abstract

The gut microbiota plays a key role in gastrointestinal immune and metabolic functions and is influenced by dietary composition. An in vitro protocol simulating the physiological conditions of the digestive system helps to study the effects of foods/biocompounds on gut microbiome and metabolome. The Dynamic-Colonic Gastrointestinal Digester consists of five interconnected compartments, double jacket vessels that simulate the physiological conditions of the stomach, the small intestine and the three colonic sections, which are the ascending colon, transverse colon and descending colon. Human faeces are required to reproduce the conditions and culture medium of the human colon, allowing the growth of the intestinal microbiota. After a stabilization period of 12 days, a food/biocompound can be introduced to study its modulatory effects during the next 14 days (treatment period). At the end of the stabilization and treatment period, samples taken from the colon compartments are analysed. The 16S rRNA gene analysis reveals the microbiota composition. The untargeted metabolomics analysis gives more than 10,000 features (metabolites/compounds). The present protocol allows in vitro testing of the modulatory effects of foods or biocompounds on gut microbiota composition and metabolic activity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Technology Used in the Characterization of Different Beverages from Different Types of Food Sources)

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Review

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20 pages, 1331 KiB

Open AccessReview

Formulation Strategies for Improving the Stability and Bioavailability of Vitamin D-Fortified Beverages: A Review

by Elsa F. Vieira and Suene Souza

Foods 2022, 11(6), 847; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11060847 - 16 Mar 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4087

Abstract

Vitamin D is a lipophilic bioactive that plays an important role in bone health. Fortification of beverages, such as milk, fruit juices, teas, and vegetable drinks, could be an efficient strategy to prevent vitamin D deficiency and its associated effects on health. This review summarizes the current understanding of beverage fortification strategies with vitamin D and the resulting effects on the stability, bioaccessibility, and sensory properties of the formulated products. The direct addition technique has been the conventional approach to fortifying beverages. In addition, encapsulation has been pointed out as a desirable delivery approach to increase stability, preserve bioactivity, and enhance the absorption of vitamin D in beverage systems. The literature reports the potential applicability of several methods for encapsulating vitamin D in beverages, including spray drying, micro/nanoemulsions, nanostructured lipid carriers, liposomes, and complexation to polymers. Some of these delivery systems have been assessed regarding vitamin D stability, but there is a lack of kinetic data that allow for the prediction of its stability under industrial processing conditions. Moreover, in some cases, the applicability of some of these delivery systems to real beverages as well as the in vivo efficacy were not evaluated; thus, fortification strategies with a global outreach are lacking. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Technology Used in the Characterization of Different Beverages from Different Types of Food Sources)

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