Traditional and Ethnic Fermented Beverages: Functional and Health Benefit Prospects

Fermentation technology is an old preservation technique that is employed to prepare various products. There are lots of food and beverages prepared using traditional methods/knowledge using various substrates and natural microbial flora shows functional and health benefits. Advanced knowledge of biotechnology and exploring the native species involved in producing fermented beverages opens new avenues for the development, optimization, standardization, and marketability of traditional fermented products. This chapter presents the overall view of types of fermented beverages (milk, cereals, fruits, and vegetables, etc.) from various countries, along with the present global market scenario of traditional fermented products. Fermented beverage consumption facilitates many health benefits (digestibility, nutritional benefits, anti-oxidative, cholesterol-lowering ability, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, gut health, etc.) are presented in this chapter.