Functional ingredients (FIs) serve to introduce and improve quality attributes of food products such as sensory appreciations, nutritional properties, health benefits, and microbiological stability. However, FIs are different from those of functional foods that are known as “any food intentionally designed to lower the risk of, or delay the onset of, certain diseases, or otherwise provide a health benefit as a result of either adding or removing certain substances from that food.”FIs serve as the basis for formulation of functional foods and technofunctionality. Furthermore, they can be used to increase sensory, microbial quality, and stability as well as improving nutritional properties of food formulations. They encompass a wide array of phytochemicals (such as polyphenols, terpenes, and alkaloids), fibers, proteins, peptides, polysaccharides, minerals and vitamins, and so forth. They have the intrinsic ability to impact taste, flavor, appearance, color, texture, water and fat binding, counteracting fat separation, foaming and emulsifying properties, preservation (antimicrobial activity), antioxidant activity, metabolite disorder, hypertension, heart disease, glycemia, and cancer. Low cost agricultural agroresources and agrifood byproducts are rich in these ingredients, and indeed they add value to the production of FIs. In this fertile research area, we welcome original research papers and review articles for this special issue. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Extraction and functional properties of food ingredients from agricultural and agrifood byproducts
• Functional ingredients and human health benefits
• Application of functional ingredients in food formulation for improvement of sensory properties and stability of food products
• Application of functional ingredients in nutraceutical and functional foods

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