Fermented foods that collaborate with microorganisms

 The Food Sanitation Act uses microorganism tests called indicator bacteria to verify the hygiene and cleanliness of food manufacturers and processing plants.

These indicator bacteria refer to general bacteria and E. coli, and since they determine the cleanliness by looking at their appearance, it can be said that they use a scientific method, and it can be said that the plate judgment method cultured on a dry film or petri dish is more accurate than the ATP method that verifies the amount of protein in microorganisms by a light source.


Fermentation is Fermantation in English, and it occurs due to the action of microorganisms, and it is on the border between spoilage and fermentation, so spoilage and fermentation ultimately depend on whether humans can eat it or not, and from the perspective of microorganisms, it changes depending on the proliferation of harmful or beneficial bacteria.


​Fermented foods include kimchi, various fermented soybean foods as sauces, salted seafood (such as pollack sikhae), yogurt, Turkish fermented mare's milk kumis, and German sauerkraut, and are lactic acid fermentation and malic acid fermentation.


The microorganisms mainly used in lactic acid fermentation are lactic acid bacteria (e.g. Lactobacillus), which produce lactic acid using sugar, so foods such as yogurt, kimchi, and vinegar can be said to be made through this process.


Meanwhile, alcohol fermentation is said to be mainly done by yeast (Mould). Malic acid bacteria are said to be used when making cheese.


The microorganisms related to kimchi are lactic acid (lactosis), a substance that accumulates in muscles when the human body is tired, and acidophilus in yogurt, and mold bacteria and lactose in cheese.


Meanwhile, lactose intolerance is a symptom in which the lactose-decomposing enzyme, such as lactase, is not produced, and thus food containing this substance, especially milk, cannot be digested. It is said to be relatively common among Koreans.


Trypsin (a type of amino acid essential to humans) inhibitor has an anticancer effect and helps prevent and treat cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and arteriosclerosis. A representative example is soybeans (a type of allergy-causing substance). This trypsin inhibitor is a phenomenon that occurs when the trypsin enzyme is produced in the stomach and needs to decompose proteins, but the enzyme's action is blocked, and the proteins are not sufficiently decomposed. Soybeans cause severe diarrhea when eaten raw.


This is because soybeans contain trypsin inhibitors that prevent the digestion of proteins, and it is said that they can be easily removed by soaking the soybeans in water and boiling them.


Like food, if people are completely rotted away like this, they are useless, but if they are properly ripened, fermentation occurs and they provide the nutrients that people need.

Comments