ABSTRACT
A large variety of foods (baked products, alcoholic beverages, yoghurt, cheese, soy, sh and meat products, and many others) are derived from food fermentation, not only in households, but also on small-scale as well as large-scale commercial enterprises and food industries. Fermented foods make a major contribution to the human diet all over the world. Fermentation has been a popular method to preserve food since ancient times. Some practices have recently been improved by more modern technology in the developed countries, with the growth of many sophisticated industries. Food fermentation became popular in many civilizations because it not only extended the shelf-life of food, but it also provided a variety of forms, avors, and other sensory experiences. e primary purpose of fermenting food substrate is to preserve foods that are susceptible to spoilage due to undesirable environment or climate conditions. Traditional fermentation serves as a low cost food processing technique producing desirable products with special characteristics, which develop due to the biochemical reactions of the microorganisms or the enzymes in the food substrates (Fellows,
2.3.4.1 Sinki 80 2.3.4.2 Gundruk 81 2.3.4.3 Khalpi 81
2.3.5 Fermented Bamboo Shoot Products 82 2.3.5.1 Mesu 82 2.3.5.2 Soibum 82 2.3.5.3 Soidon 82 2.3.5.4 Lungsiej 83 2.3.5.5 Eup 83 2.3.5.6 Ekung 83
2.4 Fermented Alcoholic Beverages/Products 84 2.4.1 Palm Wine 84 2.4.2 Sur 85 2.4.3 Atingba and Yu 85
2.5 Fermented Milk Products 85 2.5.1 Dahi 85 2.5.2 Shrikhand 87 2.5.3 Lassi 87
2.6 Indigenous Fermented Foods of Dierent Countries of South-Asia 88 2.6.1 Indigenous Fermented Foods of India 88 2.6.2 Fermented Foods of Sri Lanka and the Maldives 95 2.6.3 Fermented Foods of Nepal and Bhutan 96 2.6.4 Fermented Foods of Bangladesh 97
2.7 Summary and Future Prospectives 98 References 99
2000; Campbell-Platt, 1987, 2009). Hence, fermented foods to some extent are more attractive and nutritious than the unfermented food substrates. e traditional way of carrying out fermentation at the household-scale is still followed, using relatively simple processing facilities. ese products often contain mixed microbial populations because of lack of sterility and the use of spontaneous fermentations (Nout et al., 2007). e rich variety of fermented foods and beverages are often the pride of many countries and civilizations throughout the history of mankind; for example, the Japanese are proud of their sake, the Indonesians of their tempeh, the ais of their sh sauce, the Malaysians of their belacan, the Indians of dosa and idli, the British are proud of their beers, the German of their sauerkraut, and Italians of their cheese.
