Functional foods refer to the food conferring health advantages beyond their nutritional value and so the consumers’ interest is ever increasing. The probiotics, live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host, have often been used to produce functional foods, under favour of antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, and hypercholesterolemia effects of probiotics. However, there is still a great challenge regarding their incorporation and survival in the food matrix. On the other hand, recent studies have emerged that paraprobiotics, non-viable microbial cells (intact or ruptured), or raw cellular extracts (with complex chemical composition), which when administered in adequate amounts, also confer some health benefits to the consumer. Paraprobiotics can be obtained by exposing probiotics to thermal or non-thermal treatments such as high pressure, sonication, ultraviolet rays, ionizing radiation, irradiation, pulsed electrical field, and supercritical CO₂, due to destroying the viability of microorganisms by rupturing and/or damaging cell wall, cell membrane, DNA, and also inactivating enzymes, decreasing of intercellular pH, denaturing or changing the structure of proteins, nucleic acids, and ribosomes. Inactivation of the microorganism would lead to the release of some compounds like exopolysaccharides, peptidoglycans, and lipoteichoic acids which have numerous health benefits. Paraprobiotics have also many technological advantages like stability in a wide range of pH and temperatures, and no interaction with other components in the food matrix, which facilitate the industrial usage, commercialization, and extending the shelf life of food. Therefore, paraprobiotics are promising components and have a great potential for producing functional food products. However, researchers mainly focus on clinical studies. Hence there are limited studies regarding the potential of paraprobiotics as a food ingredient. In this regard, the following studies should focus on the optimization of different inactivation techniques together with different probiotic strains and concentrations in different food products.