In this study, four commercialized indigenous fermented beverages most highly consumed in Russia (kefir and ryazhenka) and South Africa (amasi and mahewu) were analyzed for their potential health-promoting properties and flavor-forming volatile organic compounds (VOC). The analysis of antioxidant capacity demonstrated superiority of dairy-based beverages (kefir, ryazhenka and amasi) over the corn-based mahewu; however, mahewu outperformed dairy-based beverages in terms of its potential antihypertensive effect (i.e., the ability to inhibit angiotensin I converting enzyme). The fatty acid (FA) content of kefir and ryazhenka were more diverse compared to that of amasi, but included a lesser amount of branched chain FA. In terms of calculated FA nutritional indices (e.g., indices of atherogenicity and thrombogenicity), kefir and ryazhenka performed similarly and significantly better than amasi. The agreement between beverages theoretical flavor profiles, which was obtained based on the flavors of individual VOC, and consumers’ flavor perception allow hypothesizing about the contribution of detected VOC to the overall products’ flavor. The obtained data expand current knowledge regarding traditional fermented beverages and their values in terms of national dietary recommendations. Additionally, reported VOC profiles will promote the inclusion of traditional fermented beverages into the rations based on the flavor pairing concept (which is controversial but widely applied).

Amasi, a traditional fermented milk produced in Southern Africa, is associated with several health benefits, such as probiotic activities, immune system modulation, and pharmacological (antimicrobial, antitumor and antioxidant) potential. This study investigated the microbial diversity in Amasi (produced from cow’s and goat’s milk) through targeted metagenomic bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS sequencing, the metabolic functional prediction of Amasi samples using the Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) and profiled amino acids constituents using Liquid Chromatographic-Mass Spectrophotometry (LC-MS). The results obtained revealed Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria as the most prevalent bacterial phyla, with Lactococcus and Lactobacillus being the most abundant genera. On the other hand, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Mucoromycota were the main fungal phyla, while Aspergillus, Kazachstania, and Debaryomyces spp. dominated the fungal genera. Also, Pseudomonas spp., Bacillus spp., Clostridium spp., Cronobacter spp., Alternaria spp., Diaporthe spp., and Penicillium spp. were the probable pathogenic bacteria and fungi genera found, respectively. Atopobium, Synechococcus, and Parabacteroides were found less often as rare genera. It was found that the amino acid and drug metabolism pathway prediction values in Amasi samples were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than in raw cow and goat milk, according to the inferred analysis (PICRUSt). The amino acid validation revealed glutamine and asparagine values as the most significant (p < 0.05) for Amasi cow milk (ACM) and Amasi goat milk (AGM), respectively. Comparatively, ACM showed more microbial diversity than AGM, though there were relative similarities in their microbiome composition. PICRUSt analysis revealed significant metabolites in the two Amasi samples. Overall, data from this study showed heterogeneity in microbial diversity, abundance distributions, metabolites, and amino acid balance between raw cow/goat milk and Amasi samples.