Date Fruits as Raw Material for Vinegar and Non-Alcoholic Fermented Beverages

Nowadays foods and beverages with healthy and functional properties, especially those claimed to prevent chronic diseases, are obtaining more and more interest. As a result, numerous foods and beverages have been launched on the market. Among products with enhanced properties, vinegar and fermented beverages, have high potential of growth. Date palm fruits are a versatile raw material, rich in sugars, dietary fibers, minerals, vitamins, and phenolic compounds, thus they are widely used for food production, including date juice, jelly, butter, and fermented bever-ages, such as wine and vinegar. Moreover, their composition makes them suitable for the formu-lation of functional foods and beverages. Microbial transformations of date juice include alco-holic fermentation for producing wine as end product or as a substrate for acetic fermentation. Lactic fermentation is also documented for transforming dates juice and syrup. However, con-sidering acetic acid bacteria, little evidence is available on the exploitation of date juice by acetic and gluconic fermentation for producing beverages. This review presents an overview of date fruit’s composition, the related health benefits for hu-man health, vinegar and date-based fermented non-alcoholic beverages obtained by acetic acid bacteria fermentation.