ABSTRACT

Recently, the consciousness of consumers about the food impact on health is continuously increasing. In response to that, nowadays there is a worldwide increase in consumers` demands towards innovative products. In this context, the specialty beer market has gained а lot of attention recently. Beer is one of the most consumed low-alcoholic beverages in the world. It contains some rare and important bioactive, functional compounds. By using different equipment, techniques and ingredients containing bioactive compounds, there is a possibility to formulate and to produce various beers with potential health benefits. Breweries recognized the potential for a completely new market and started producing functional beers. This review presents a detailed summary of currently available data in this field. Some of the described beers are present on the market, while the others are developed functional beer formulations published in the scientific journals, or they are approved patents. The most of the formulations are related to beers with herbs which are already used as medical plants. This paper are also describes beers with the addition of fungi Ganoderma lucidum, grape, xanthohumol, kefir, and probiotics.