Role of microorganism in Fermentation foods
The development of fermentation technologies is lost in the mists of history Anthropologists have suggested that it was the production of alcohol that motivated primitive people to settle down and become agriculturists. Some even think that the consumption of fermented foods is pre-human. The first fermented foods consumed probably were fermented fruits. Hunter-gatherers would have consumed fresh fruits but at times of scarcity would have eaten rotten and fermented fruits. Repeated consumption would have led to the development of the taste for fermented fruits.
There is a reliable information that fermented drinks were being produced over 7,000 years ago in Babylon (now Iraq), 5,000 years ago in Egypt, 4,000 years ago in Mexico and 3,500 years ago in Sudan. Bread-making probably originated in Egypt over 3,500 years ago. Several triangular loaves of bread have been found in ancient tombs. Fermentation of milk started I many places with an evidence of fermented products in use in Babylon over 5,000 years ago. There is also evidence of fermented meat products being produced for King Nebuchadnezer of Babylon. China is thought to be the birth-place of fermented vegetables and 'the use of Aspergillus and Rhizopus moulds to make food. The book called "Shu-Ching" written in the Chou dynasty in China (1 121-256 BC) refers to the use of "chu"- a fermented grain product.
Having looked at the history of fermentation, let us review and see what I fermentation? Fermentation is the slow decomposition process of organic substance induced by microorganisms, or by complex nitrogenous substances (enzymes) o plant or animal origin. It can be described as a biochemical change, which is brought about by the anaerobic or partially anaerobic oxidation of carbohydrates by either microorganisms or enzymes.
You know that microorganisms are naturally found in foods, since there is no environment where some type of microbes cannot live. These microbes either living or dead and their cellular byproducts all have specific uses in some foods. These include such products as fermented food products. Fermented foods use microbes to convert the original food into a fermented product by the use of specific microbes. These microorganisms use the original product for growth and reproduction, and in the process, they excrete byproducts into the environment surrounding themselves and the food. These byproducts plus the part of the original product that is no consumed is the fermented food. Fermented foods include fermented dairy, meat, fish, cereals, fruits, vegetable products etc. They may be fermented separately or I conjunction with each other to produce the desirable end product.