ABSTRACT
Fermented foods practice is an integral part of age-old wisdom from ancient human civilization. Fermented foods are marketed globally as healthy foods, functional foods, therapeutic foods, nutraceutical based foods or bio-foods. The variety of fermented foods prepared by mankind ranging from milk to alcohol, soybeans to cereals, vegetables to bamboo, meat to fish, and alcoholic beverages to non-alcoholic beverages depends upon locally available bioresources. Traditional fermented foods are the consortia of synergistic microorganisms including multi-strain and multi-species, which modify the substrates biochemically and organoleptically into edible products that are culturally and socially acceptable to the consumers. Apart from basic nutrients, microbial association enriches the rice with different nutraceuticals, destroying the undesirable components and contaminants, and increasing the shelf-life of food. Rice is a major food crop for the people of the world in general and Asians in particular; nearly 90% of the world's rice is produced and consumed in the region.
