M T Wu, Yi-Xiang Wang, Yu Wang, Youqiang Xu, Baoguo Sun
Fermented food microbial ecosystems are dynamic and shaped by microbes, substrates, and environments, but traditional spontaneous fermentation causes variability in quality and safety, limiting standardization. This review highlighted multi-omics integration to comprehensively characterize microbial composition, dynamics, interactions, metabolites, and phages, and summarized regulation strategies including functional strains, synthetic microbial communities, bacteriophage control, and physicochemical modulation. Finally, the futures and challenges from empirical practice to predictable, scalable industrial fermentation were proposed.