When was fermentation first discovered

Whether keepers of culinary tradition, those interested in potential health benefits or folks who simply enjoy trying new foods, fermentation enthusiasts are bringing new life to this ancient practice. Lactic acid fermentation, or lacto-fermentation, is among the most common methods and one of the easiest to experiment with at home.

It is an anaerobic process whereby lactic acid bacteria, mainly Lactobacillus species, convert sugar into lactic acid, which acts as a preservative. Salt plays a pivotal role in traditional fermentation by creating conditions that favor the bacteria, preventing the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, pulling water and nutrients from the substrate and adding flavor.

The earliest record of fermentation dates back as far as B. From Korean kimchi and Indian chutneys to the ubiquitous sauerkraut, yogurt and cheese, global cultures have crafted unique flavors and traditions around fermentation.

In some cases, fermentation is a critical component to food safety beyond preservation. In , fermentation was a method of food preservation. Fermenting foods provided a way to store them without the need for refrigeration. While farm wives in may not have been making kimchi or kombucha, they were certainly feeding their families fermented foods such as cheese, bread, beer, and vinegar. Without giving you a full-on microbiology lesson, the basic principles of food preservation by fermentation depend on the transformative action of microbes and the manipulation of environments to encourage the action of certain desired microbes and discourage the presence or action of less desirable microbes.

Fermentation is an anaerobic process, which means it occurs in an airless environment. The desirable bacteria thrive in this oxygen-free environment digesting sugars, starches, and carbohydrates and releasing alcohols, carbon dioxide, and organic acids which are what preserve the food.

When considering fermenting your own foods, it is important to remember that fermentation is, essentially, controlled decay. It creates very strong, compelling flavors, which can be an acquired taste for some and culturally subjective for others.

Fermented food is neither fresh nor rotten, and it is up to the personal tastes of the fermenter to decide what is palatable. Get excited about fermented foods. Get experimental. If not for the health benefits, then because fermented foods are just plain tasty, not to mention a great way to preserve your garden harvest. Cohn, a Polish botanist and microbiologist, first gave the koji mold its present name, Aspergillus oryzae. The genus Aspergillus was first identified and named by Micheli in Ref??

After the koji mold was referred to as Aspergillus oryzae Ahlburg Cohn, in recognition of Ahlburg's earliest accurate description.

The mold's characteristics were subsequently clarified and elaborated by Buesgen Ref?? Another pioneer in the field of koji research was Atkinson, who had a BS degree from London and was a professor of analytical and applied chemistry at Tokyo University. In , after visiting sake factories, he wrote "On Sake Brewing," which contained a preliminary description of the koji-making process and mentioned the word "koji.

Nakazawa at the koji plant of Mr. Kameyama in Yushima near Tokyo, he published two major articles. In his page "On the Chemistry of Sake Brewing," he gave a detailed account of koji making in underground caves in Tokyo and an analysis of its composition. His "On the Diastase of Koji" first demonstrated that the koji mold had strong diastatic amylolytic activity. In Dr. Oscar Kellner a German Professor of Agricultural Chemistry at Tokyo University and his Japanese co-workers published pioneering studies on koji, shoyu, and miso.

Then in and , C. Wehmer, who taught mycology at Hannover, described the koji mold in great detail. He also stated that koji was being made in America at a large Japanese sake brewery on U Street in Peoria, Illinois, the very area that would become America's leading center of research on koji and miso, starting in the s!

As Western researchers studied koji, they quickly realized that it has much the same relationship to shoyu and miso fermentation that malt has to Western alcoholic grain fermentations. The rich interchange between Japan and Europe, and between scientists and food manufacturers led to major benefits to all parties. As Atkinson b noted:. I cannot omit to here draw attention to the mutual advantage to be derived from an association of workers in industrial and in pure science; the cooperation cannot but be of the greatest utility on the one hand, by suggesting new subjects for research to the theoretical worker, and on the other, in aiding the practical man to attain the best results possible.

Most of Japan's imported European professors had bright Japanese students and technicians, whom they taught and trained carefully. By the late s and early s these students, and others who had gone to Europe to study, were publishing scientific articles in both Japanese and European journals about traditional fermented soyfoods and koji. One of the first Japanese to make an important commercial application of the new knowledge of microbiology and fermentation science was Jokichi Takamine, who had studied at a Japanese university.

Having heard of the malting process in the West, he decided ambitiously to try to introduce the koji process in its place. After increasing considerably the diastatic activity of the koji mold, he went to America in , but met with opposition from the malt makers. He then undertook a new project to extract the enzymes from the koji mold for commercial use.

In he was granted two US patents Nos. This product, which contained a rich variety of enzymes, came to be used widely in the field of enzymology; it brought international fame to both him and the koji mold. Takamine was far ahead of his time in recognizing the potential industrial significance of enzymes, even in an era when knowledge of enzymes was very scanty.

Another early leader in the fields of microbiology and fermented soyfoods was K. He did excellent early investigations on the shoyu fermentation, named the primary tempeh mold Rhizopus oligosporus in , and was an authority on yeasts and molds.

Likewise K. Yabe did important early work in bacteriology and in natto fermentation. Two other early pioneers in the introduction of microbiology and fermentation science to Japan were Dr. Teizo Takahashi and his brilliant student Dr. Kinichiro Sakaguchi , both of whom were professors in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry of Tokyo University. An excellent book chronicling the contributions of these two men and containing summaries of papers relating to Dr.

Takahashi's work and relating to Dr. Sakaguchi's has been published by Asai and Arima and a Commemorative Committee. Both men did numerous important studies relating to miso, shoyu, and the koji mold, Aspergillus see Bibliography. In addition, Dr. Sakaguchi was deeply interested in the history of fermentation and fermented foods including fermented soyfoods in East Asia, and he wrote some of the best works in English available on this subject Sakaguchi , Hesseltine and Wang noted eight areas in which Western microbiologists have made contributions to indigenous fermented foods.

In addition to 1 training teachers and technicians, and 2 studying all scientific aspects of the fermentation process, they have 3 introduced breeding of microorganisms for strain improvement as with shoyu and miso , 4 promoted use of pure cultures in the fermentation of all fermented soyfoods , 5 described the changes in the substrate during fermentation especially with tempeh and miso , 6 established the food values of the products, 7 suggested new food uses of the products especially tempeh and miso , and 8 developed an awareness of the importance of studying indigenous fermented foods.

A final contribution might be the development of new technologies transferable to traditional fermented foods; an example would be the perforated polyethylene bags for tempeh incubation developed at the USDA Northern Regional Research Center. During the 20th century, Japanese microbiologists have made many important contributions to the development of applied and industrial microbiology, including the manufacture of fermented soyfoods, as well summarized by Tamiya and Sakaguchi Until quite recently, their strength was more in the area of application of scientific knowledge than in pioneering basic scientific and microbiological breakthroughs.

From the early s, important studies on the koji mold and its enzymes were done by Japanese scientists. Important advances in enzymology, with much of the work done on koji molds, began in the s. In Miyazaki developed the combined Amylo-Koji process. By the s Japanese scientists had isolated various protease and amylase enzymes, induced mutations, and used them commercially.

They also developed the technology for the microbial production of L-glutamic acid and monosodium glutamate MSG , lysine and other amino acids, flavor enhancing nucleotides such as inosinic acid, and organic acids.

They used the koji mold Aspergillus oryzae in the commercial production of enzymes including proteases, amylases, amyloglucosidase, and lipase.

They made microbial rennet and numerous other products. Indeed in the period following World War II, Japan became the world leader in the field of industrial fermentations. Wang and Hesseltine have suggested that this may have been "in large part due to the food fermentation base from which it launched its industrialization of micoorganisms.

In in Japan, foods made from koji molds accounted for 1. Prominent among these were miso and shoyu Sakaguchi Production of fermented soyfoods continues to be the most important of the fermented food industries of East Asia. The many important developments in this field will be described in the following chapters.

Starting in about the s and increasing rapidly after the mids, East Asian fermented soyfoods especially soy sauce or shoyu, miso, and tempeh, in that order , began to be widely used in the West. Reasons for this include the growing general interest in soyfoods, the cultural and religious movement toward meatless and vegetarian diets, the increasing interest in nutritious foods with less animal fats, the awareness these foods as a good vegetarian source of vitamin B, the growing worldwide travel stimulating interest in foreign foods, the increase of East Asian refugees to the West, and the increased interest in microbiology and enhanced image of fermented foods.

Besides, the availability of the genomes of many pathogenic and spoilage bacteria may open new possibilities for the design of novel antibiotics which target essential functions of these problematic bacteria. The real challenge of the genomics and proteomic era, as it applies to food systems, is the harnessing of this wealth of information for improved culture performance and activities, thereby improving the safety and quality and composition of global food supply.

Another important challenge involves technology. This is the case of halophilic or acid thermophilic microbes, respectively.

Operating under these conditions causes corrosion which affects the half-life of most of the bioreactor currently available , thus negatively affecting the implementation of these microorganisms at large scale. Finally, the design of fermentation processes based on circular economy is still a challenge.

Some recent approaches tend to use food wastes as raw materials to design sustainable processes based on acidogenesis, fermentation, methanogenesis, solventogenesis, photosynthesis, oleaginous process, bioelectrogenesis, etc. Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3. Help us write another book on this subject and reach those readers. Login to your personal dashboard for more detailed statistics on your publications.

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