**8. Conclusion**

Bioactive ingredients (BI) play a substantial role in health, and consuming foods possessing these beneficial substances, which are called functional foods, can *Bioactive Ingredients in Functional Foods: Current Status and Future Trends DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104416*

therefore enhance human well-being. BI are abundant in various natural sources, including animal-based products, marine products, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Probiotics can increase the nutritional value of these commodities via their enzymatic activity, which may lead to producing a vast array of BI in foods, such as vitamins, bioactive peptides, and folates. In addition to fermentation, there are other novel technologies that have been employed for the generation of BI in foods, like subcritical water extraction, ohmic heating, pulsed electric fields, and high hydrostatic pressure. In this regard, peptidomics and bioinformatics are two robust approaches to identify and discover the bioactive peptides formed in functional foods.
