ABSTRACT
Fermented foods and beverages are produced as a result of the activities of microorganisms,principallyyeasts,molds,andbacteria.Fungi(yeastsandmolds)playa majorroleintraditionalfermentedfoodsthathavelonghistories.Today,someof thesefermentedproductshaveachievedindustrialdevelopmentandareproduced onalargescaleasaresultoftheapplicationofmoderntechnology,automationin productionengineering,andbiotechnologyinthegeneticmanipulationoffunctionalyeastsandmolds.Yeastsplayvitalrolesintheproductionofmanytraditional
TABLE 4.1
Main Functional Properties of Fungi in Fermented Foods
fermented foods and beverages across the world (Aidoo et al. 2006) that signify the foodcultureoftheregionsandthecommunity(TamangandFleet2009).About 21 majorgenerawithseveralspeciesoffunctionalyeastshavebeenreportedfromfermentedfoodsandbeveragesthatincludeBrettanomyces(itsperfectstage,Dekkera), Candida,Cryptococcus,Debaryomyces,Galactomyces,Geotrichum,Hansenula, Hanseniaspora(itsasexualcounterpartKloeckera),Hyphopichia,Kluyveromyces, Metschnikowia,Pichia,Rhodotorula,Saccharomyces,Saccharomycodes,Saccharomycopsis,Schizosaccharomyces,Torulopsis,Trichosporon,Yarrowia,and Zygosaccharomyces(KurtzmanandFell1998,Pretorius2000,Romanoetal.2006, TamangandFleet2009).Moldsinfermentedfoodsandbeveragesarerelativelylimited,andincludethegeneraActinomucor,Mucor,Rhizopus,Amylomyces,Monascus, Neurospora,Aspergillus,andPenicillium(Hesseltine1983,1991,Samson1993,Nout and Aidoo 2002).
