ABSTRACT

India has the second largest tribal community in the world. Most of the tribals in India live in the hilly stretch of the Himalayan range from Ladakh or Uttarakhand to Arunachal Pradesh. They possess a rich cultural heritage. Preparation of various fermented foods is intimately associated with their custom and rituals. Fermented foods are foods with active microbiological activity. Traditional fermented foods are those which are used by human beings from time immemorial. Ethnic communities of India have a rich heritage of practicing this technique. The traditional knowledge in most of the cases is secret and they pass them to future generation as their right. However, with the social development and urbanization, younger generations are less interested to preserve this inherited knowledge. So this traditional knowledge must be protected before they disappear. On the other hand, origin of fermented foods was basically to preserve locally grown crops and harvest. But with the advent of modern preservation techniques, this aspect of fermented foods has become less important. Recently health promoting activities of fermenting microflora have renewed interest on these foods. Production of bioactive metabolites by the fermenting microflora has immense therapeutic potential. This review aims at preserving their cultural heritage and emphasizes the need of microbiological research for the benefit of mankind. Keyword: Fermented food, alcoholic beverage, tribes, microorganisms, probiotics, starter culture
Publication date: 01/04/2020

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2020/April/MS_IJBPAS_2020_5025.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2020/9.4.5025