Amaranth Seeds as Lactic Acid Bacteria Fermentation Substrates: Prospects for Metabiotic Foods and Functional Ingredients

Application of Functional Microorganisms in Seed-Based Fermentation for the Production of Nutritionally Enhanced and Bioactive Food Condiments: A Review

Fermentation remains one of the oldest and most effective biotechnological processes for improving food quality, safety, and shelf life. In Africa, the fermentation of seed-based substrates such as African locust bean ( Parkia biglobosa ), soybean ( Glycine max ), melon seed ( Citrullus lanatus ), Bambara groundnut ( Vigna subterranea ), and sesame ( Sesamum indicum ) plays a vital role in the production of traditional condiments, such as iru , dawadawa , ogiri , ugba , and okpehe. This review examines the application of functional microorganisms in the fermentation of seed-based substrates and their contributions to the enhancement of nutritional and bioactive properties of fermented food condiments. Functional microorganisms, including lactic acid bacteria, Bacillus species, yeasts, and selected fungi, facilitate complex biochemical transformations through enzymatic degradation of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. These activities improve nutrient bioavailability, protein digestibility, flavor development, and overall product quality. An ideal functional starter culture must possess several criteria that include safety status, enzymatic capability, acid tolerance, fermentation efficiency, and bioactive metabolite production, are discussed. The review highlights the mechanisms through which microbial fermentation promotes the production of bioactive compounds such as bioactive peptides, bacteriocins, short-chain fatty acids, gamma-aminobutyric acids, and antioxidant metabolites, many of which are associated with antihypertensive, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and gut-health-promoting effects. In addition, fermentation significantly reduces antinutritional factors such as phytates, tannins, oxalates, and trypsin inhibitors, thus enhancing mineral absorption and nutritional utilization. Overall, the integration of functional microorganisms into seed-based fermentation systems offers a sustainable approach to improving the nutritional value, safety, functionality, and commercial potential of traditional fermented condiments. This approach supports food security, promotes the valorization of indigenous seed resources, and contributes to the development of innovative functional foods aligned with modern nutritional and public health needs.

Interactions, transformation, and functionality: Lactic acid bacteria fermentation of egg liquid as a novel food matrix

Eggs are predominantly consumed as basic food ingredients, with limited application in value-added products. Lactic acid bacteria fermentation offers a promising strategy to transform egg matrices into functional food ingredients. This review provides a comprehensive and critical overview of how LAB drives substrate consumption—including proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates—generates bioactive metabolites such as organic acids, flavor compounds, and free amino acids, and induces structural rearrangements in egg proteins at both macroscopic and molecular levels. These changes collectively improve functional properties including solubility, texture, rheology, emulsifying capacity, and foaming stability via mechanisms involving proteolysis, pH-driven aggregation, and redox balance. Importantly, fermentation outcomes are highly condition-dependent—the direction and extent of changes depend on substrate composition, protein concentration, pH, and strain selection. By integrating substrate transformations, structural modifications, and functional outcomes into a unified framework, this review provides mechanistic insights for developing LAB-fermented egg products with enhanced quality and health-promoting potential.

Metabolic fermentation pathways of microalgae for the synthesis of high-value chemical products.

This review critically discusses the biochemical diversity of microalgae, particularly their carbohydrate and protein contents that can be converted via fermentation process into added valuable organic metabolites. It lays on processes such as alcoholic fermentation, dark fermentation and acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation, this review details the enzymatic mechanisms underlying the production of various compounds, including alcohols, organic acids, aldehydes, ketones, esters, and terpenoids/isoprenoids. Special attention is given to the recent progress on metabolic engineering pathways to optimize microbial strains (i.e., Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Clostridium spp.) for higher chemical yield. Fermentation of several microalgae biomass (Chlorella, Arthrospira, Nannochloropsis, Scenedesmus, Chlorococcum) with S. cerevisiae and C. acetobutylicum for ethanol and biobutanol production, respectively, is already well proved at laboratory scale. Genetically modified microorganisms in terms of yield and productivity of high-value compounds is well established. However, the research prospecting includes fermenting carotenoid-rich microalgae such as Dunaliella and Haematococcus, specifically for terpenoid/isoprenoid production remain a gap in the science. Thus, it encompasses biotransformation (fermentation or respiration) of carbohydrates into ethanol, proteins into higher alcohols and volatile fatty acids, lipids into biodiesel, and carotenoid into isoprenoids and terpenoids. These approaches should be correlated to the biomass optimization, including minimization residues - circular economy. It is worth mentioning the synthetic biology and real-time biosensors perspectives, in terms of more robust, flexible, and industrially processes.

Microbial Glucosamine Production: Current Strategies, Process Bottlenecks, and Future Perspectives.

Glucosamine and its derivatives have been extensively used in the nutraceutical, cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical industries. Commercial glucosamine production traditionally relies on the acid or enzymatic hydrolysis of crustacean shells, particularly those of shrimp and crabs. However, these processes are often associated with high production costs, environmental concerns, extensive chemical usage, and the generation of hazardous waste. In recent years, microbial production of glucosamine has emerged as a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative, offering advantages such as milder processing conditions, reduced chemical inputs, and improved process scalability. Microbial approaches include direct glucosamine biosynthesis by native microorganisms, bioconversion of chitin-rich substrates by chitinolytic microbes, and metabolic engineering of recombinant strains for enhanced production. This review explores microbial approaches for glucosamine production, including direct biosynthesis, chitin bioconversion, and recombinant microbial systems. Key challenges related to substrate utilization, process scalability, strain stability, and product recovery are critically evaluated, along with emerging solutions involving metabolic engineering and process optimization. Additionally, strategies to overcome such challenges such as CRISPR-based gene editing, optimization of culture and fermentation conditions etc. have been discussed. This review emphasizes the fact that while microbial production of glucosamine offers clear environmental and economic advantages, their large-scale feasibility depends on addressing these challenges through integrated approaches.

Amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus L.): Nutritional Composition, Bioactive Compounds, Processing Technologies, Food Applications, and Future Perspectives

Amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus L.) is an Andean pseudocereal with a nutritional profile characterized by its protein, dietary fiber, and bioactive compound content, adequate balance of essential amino acids, and the presence of bioactive compounds with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cardiometabolic properties. This review analyzes the main processing methods applied to amaranth, including milling, roasting, popping, rolling, extrusion, germination, fermentation, encapsulation, and component isolation, describing how these technologies modify its nutritional, functional, and technological properties. It also examines its applications in various food categories, such as baked goods, extruded snacks, fermented beverages, symbiotic foods, and gluten-free formulations, highlighting its potential as a functional food ingredient for developing functional foods and nutraceuticals. Furthermore, this study discusses the technological and industrial challenges associated with its processing, including structural, sensory, and scalability limitations, within the context of the growing global demand for healthy and sustainable foods. Finally, the study identifies knowledge gaps and research priorities to optimize processing conditions, improve sensory acceptability, and enhance industrial value, thereby supporting further evaluation of its integration into food production systems.

Fermentation of plant-based foods: Microbial consortia and their impacts on composition, sensory quality, and health benefits of food products.