Dear Colleagues,

Today, application of new discoveries in health-promoting food manufacture has been an intriguing issue of major public concern. In response to demands from increasingly health-conscious consumers, the global new market trend is oriented to foods not only with superior quality characteristics, but mainly to products with improved nutritional attributes, capable of preventing and/or curing illness.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization, probiotics are defined as “live microorganisms which, administered in adequate amounts, confer a beneficial physiological effect on the host”. Definitely, a probiotic-rich diet has been associated with the prevention and potential treatment of several severe disorders. Probiotic foods often target high cell densities, aiming at the survival of a sufficient number of health-promoting microbes at the gastrointestinal (GI) tract based on a reasonable amount of food consumed. However, maintenance of high viability levels is not always fulfilled. Thus, insertion of probiotic bacteria into a food matrix represents a fully new challenge for the industry, because of the microbial interactions with food constituents, as well as the harsh conditions usually encountered during food processing and storage, which often result in severe reduction of viable cell counts.

In order to extend our knowledge and explore their effectiveness as beneficial agents in functional foods production, research is focused on definition of food matrix effects on probiotic efficiency, the use of emerging technologies for maintaining high cell viability, developing effective delivery vehicles for targeted probiotic delivery, designing and developing novel probiotic dairy products based on understanding consumer attitudes and quality perception, etc.

Thus, the main objective of this Special Issue is to provide new information focused on the facts, applications, and challenges of probiotic microorganisms in the dairy industry. The Special Issue is expected to become an international forum for researchers to summarize current inventions, developments, and ideas in the field, with a special emphasis on the technical applications obtained within the last five years, and future perspectives.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Effective vehicles for targeted probiotic delivery;
• Design and development of novel probiotic dairy products;
• Applications of probiotic cell encapsulation/immobilization technology in the dairy industry;
• Dairy probiotics and intestinal microbiota;
• Health claims associated with of consumption of probiotic dairy products.

Assoc. Prof. Yiannis Kourkoutas
Prof. Eugenia Bezirtzoglou
Prof. Panagiotis Kandylis
Dr. Dimitra Dimitrellou
Dr. Steva Lević
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Novel dairy probiotic products
• Encapsulation/immobilization of probiotics
• Targeted delivery
• Intestinal microbiota
• Health claims