Fermented Vegetable Beverages: A Global Perspective on Probiotic Properties, Functional Bioactives, and Health-Promoting Potential — A Review
Abstract Fermented vegetable beverages have become a highly promising category of plant-based functional food products that are nutritionally rich, allergen-free, and vegan-friendly alternatives to dairy-based probiotic beverages. The global review summarizes research on the fermentation of vegetable products into probiotic and functional beverages concerning microbiology, process technology, biochemical transformations, probiotic and functional bioactive properties, health benefits, sensory qualities and safety. The fermentation agents Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus brevis and Pediococcus acidilactici are the primary fermentation agents responsible for acidification, bioactive compound biotransformation and the probiotic role of fermented vegetable beverages from carrot, beetroot, tomato, cabbage and mixed vegetable blends. The present review covers all known fermented vegetable beverages (Indian kanji, Eastern-European beet kvass, Korean kimchi juice, Japanese tsukemono brine) and novel research-based probiotic vegetable beverages for worldwide evidence evaluation. Fermentation significantly increases the antioxidant activity and bioaccessibility of phenolic compounds, reduces antinutritional factors, and increases B vitamin content compared to nonfermented ones. There is a promising clinical and preclinical evidence available supporting health-promoting benefits for cardiovascular health, dietary nitrate-mediated blood pressure lowering, gut microbiome modulation, weight loss, metabolism-related effects of the gut microbiome, anti-obesity metabolism, immunomodulatory activity and immune responses. Problems to be addressed include maintaining probiotic viability in non-dairy matrices, standardizing fermentation processes, overcoming consumer acceptance barriers, and conducting well-designed randomized controlled trials to substantiate health claims. The future of precision fermentation, synbiotics formulation, metabolomics-driven formulation, optimization, artificial intelligence-driven optimization and process development are the most promising pathways for advancing the field. This review shows that fermented vegetable beverages are a versatile and commercially promising class of non-dairy functional foods with great potential for healthy foods with global public health impact.