**1. Introduction**

The relationship between food and health has been investigated for many years, and therefore, the development of foods that promote health and well-being is a key research priority of the food industry [1]. Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of human nutrition. Unfortu‐ nately, the daily intake of fruits and vegetables is estimated to be lower than the recommen‐ dation of the World Health Organization (WHO) [2], who suggest a dietary intake of 450 and 500 g of fruits and vegetables, respectively. Vegetables are strongly recommended in the human diet because they are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, dietary fibres and minerals. The majority of vegetables consumed in the human diet are fresh, minimally processed, pasteurised or cooked by boiling in water or microwaving, and vegetables can be canned, dried, or juiced or made into pastes, salads, sauces, or soups. Fresh vegetables or those that have been minimally processed have a particularly short shelf-life because they are subjected to rapid microbial spoilage. In addition, the above cooking processes can cause a number of potentially undesirable changes in physical characteristics and chemical composition [3,4].

Therefore, these drawbacks could be reduced by novel technologies, such as new packaging systems, high-hydrostatic pressure processing, ionisation radiation and pulsed electric fields [5-7]. The use of natural antimicrobial preservatives is considered to be the simplest and most valuable biological technique to keep and/or enhance the safety, nutrition, palatability and shelf-life of fruits and vegetables [5]. Lactic acid fermentation of vegetables, currently used as the bio-preservation method for the manufacture of finished and half-finished foods, is an important biotechnology for maintaining and/or improving safety, nutritional, sensory and

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shelf-life properties of vegetables. Three technology options are usually considered for lactic acid fermentation of vegetable: spontaneous fermentation by autochthonous lactic acid bacteria, fermentation by starter cultures that are added into raw vegetables, and fermentation of mild heat-treated vegetables by starter cultures [18]. For thousands of years, microorganisms have been used to produce and preserve foods through the process of fermentation. Fermented foods have been adopted in various ways depending on the properties of the available raw materials and the desired features of the final products [8-10]. Food produced by traditional methods has become popular among consumers who know that their food is manufactured from high quality raw materials, without preservatives and other synthetic additives that are characterised by unique flavour values [11].
