Microbial Resources from Extreme Environments for Food Biotechnology: Applications and Challenges

Extreme environments, arising from natural processes or human activities, harbor microorganisms adapted to high salinity, temperature extremes, atypical pH, and other restrictive conditions. Similar stresses occur during food fermentation and processing, creating opportunities to utilize microorganisms and functional products associated with extreme conditions in the food industry. This review connects microbial diversity and environmental selection in extreme environments with resource discovery and food-relevant validation. Cultivation, omics, and database-assisted screening expand access to candidate microorganisms and enzymes, although predicted functions require experimental confirmation. Current food-related studies have primarily evaluated enzymes and starter cultures in high-salt fermentation and in processes conducted at low or elevated temperatures, with reported effects on substrate transformation, compositional improvement, flavor development, and the removal of undesirable compounds. The application of these resources in food biotechnology requires reproducible performance in representative food systems, together with safety assessment, sensory evaluation, production consistency, and scale-up. Integrating food-associated omics with computational screening could facilitate the development of reliable microbial resources for food fermentation and processing.