ABSTRACT
Fermentation has been used since time immemorial primarily to improve the storage quality and safety of foods, enabling generations to survive through periods of food shortage and climatic excesses. Apart from this primary aim, depending on specific products, fermentation improves palatability, sensory properties, functionality of foods and nutritional value while reducing toxicity. In fact while all other forms of food preservation involve a certain loss of nutrients, fermentation is a process which ensures an increase in the nutrient content (Jagannath et al. 2014, Jagannath et al. 2012a) and improvement in chemical and microbiological qualities (Jagannath et al. 2012b). What started as an art to conserve food for the lean season has developed into a modern science today so much so that carefully selected, desirable microorganisms containing high levels of viable cells are intentionally added to various foods to initiate, accelerate and accomplish the desired fermentation and end products. These microorganisms, called starter cultures, can be either moulds, yeasts or bacteria and their substrates milk, meat, fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes, root, tubers, etc. Among bacteria, lactic acid bacteria are the most predominantly used organisms.
