Year: 2013 | Month: June | Volume 3 | Issue 1
Traditional Fermentations: Green Pastures for Academia and Industry
Abstract: <div>Fermentation has been used as a means of improving the shelf-life and adding quality to food for more than 6000 years. Earlier, the transformation of basic food materials into fermented foods was considered as a mystery. Probably, the first fermentation was discovered accidently when salt was added to food materials which caused the selection of some harmless microorganisms that could ferment the raw material to give nutritious and acceptable food. Since that time, it has been practiced to improve both preservation and</div><div>organoleptic characteristics of the food. In the world, there are large varieties of fermented foods and beverages with traditional, religious and cultural value. The diversity of such fermented products is derived from the heterogeneity of traditions prevalent in the world, cultural preference, geographical origin and the staple or by-products used in the fermentation. In many instances it is likely that the methods of production were unknown and came out by chance and passed down by cultural and traditional values to the subsequent generations.</div>
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