ABSTRACT
Fermentation is one of the oldest biotechnologies for the production of food products with desirable properties such as extended shelf-life and good organoleptic properties (Smid and Hugenholtz 2010). Finished fermented foods usually have an improved microbial stability and safety and some can be stored even at ambient temperatures. Furthermore, there are several examples of fermentation processes which lead to an increase in nutritional value or digestibility (Jägerstad et al. 2005) of food raw materials. Finally, food fermentation processes also deliver products with increased palatability for consumers. All these arguments have boosted the interest to explore natural food fermentation processes and more precisely to link the diversity of the community of fermenting microbes and their properties to the energetics of the process and to product quality.
