Traditional Fermented Foods of Turkey

Sağlık Bilimleri ve Araştırmaları Dergisi / Journal of Health Sciences and Research Cilt/Volume: 2 Sayı/Issue: 3 Aralık / December 2020 ss./pp. 200-220 Derleme makale / Review doi: https://doi.org/10.46413/boneyusbad.790343 Traditional Fermented Foods of Turkey Türkiye’deki Geleneksel Fermente Ürünler Merve İnce PALAMUTOĞLU * , Murat BAŞ** ABSTRACT Fermentation is one of the oldest and most economical methods used to preserve and improve shelf-life, flavor, texture, and functional properties of foods. In general, lactic acid bacteria of various breeds predominate in food fermentation, including Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc, and Pediococcus. However, in addition to these bacteria, yeast, and fungi also contribute to food fermentation. In Turkey, the most widely produced and consumed traditional foods are yogurt, buttermilk, kefir, kımız, tarhana, boza, pickles, shalgam juice, hardaliye, and sucuk. This review aims to identify the most common traditional fermented products and to emphasize some microbiological characteristics as well as the health effects of fermented products. Keywords: Fermentation, Healthy nutrition, Lactic acid bacteria, Traditional fermented food ÖZET Fermantasyon, besinlerin raf ömrünü uzatmak, lezzetini, dokusunu ve fonksiyonel özelliklerini korumak ve geliştirmek için kullanılan en eski ve en ekonomik yöntemlerden biridir. Genel olarak besin fermantasyonunda, Lactoctoccus, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, Leuconostoc ve Pediococcus dahil olmak üzere çeşitli cinslerden laktik asit bakterileri baskındır. Ancak bu bakterilerin yanı sıra maya ve mantarlar da besin fermantasyonuna katkıda bulunur. Türkiye'de üretilen ve tüketilen en yaygın geleneksel besinler arasında yoğurt, ayran, kefir, kımız, tarhana, boza, turşu, şalgam suyu, hardaliye ve sucuk bulunur. Bu derleme, en yaygın geleneksel fermente ürünleri tanımlamayı, fermente ürünlerin bazı mikrobiyolojik özelliklerini ve sağlık açısından etkilerini vurgulamayı amaçlamaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Fermantasyon, Sağlıklı beslenme, Laktik asit bakterileri, Geleneksel fermente ürünler Geliş Tarihi / Received: 04.09.2020 Kabul Tarihi / Accepted: 06.12.2020 * Öğr. Gör., Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics ** Prof. Dr., Acıbadem University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Sorumlu Yazar / Corresponding Author: Merve İnce PALAMUTOĞLU, 200 Sağlık Bilimleri ve Araştırmaları Dergisi / Journal of Health Sciences and Research SABAD, 2020; 2(3), 200-220 INTRODUCTION The origin of Turkish nutritional culture goes back to Central Asia. When the settled life of the Turks, Turkish food culture has started to produce a wide variety of different foods and traditional Turkish nutrition culture has been shaped. The traditional food production methods have been survived to the present day. The most important production method is the food fermentation technique (Evren, Apan, Tutkun, & Evren, 2011). Production of fermented foods has been ongoing since the early ages and because the fermentation process increases the taste, flavor, structure, nutritional value, and shelf life of foods, it has an important place in the nutrition of people. It is consumed safely in all societies from undeveloped countries to developed countries (Coşkun, 2017; Demir, 2018; Kocatepe ve Tiril, 2015; Rezac, Kok, Heermann & Hutkins, 2018; Smid & Hugenholtz, 2010; Tangüler & Erten, 2013). Fermented products are superior in terms of nutritional value since they increase digestibility and increase essential amino acids and vitamin content naturally compared to non-fermented foods (Kocaadam ve Acar, 2016). In addition, these nutrients can be defined as safe foods since the metabolites formed by fermentation are thought to cause degradation of nutrients and prevent and/or destroy many of the pathogenic microorganisms (Demir, 2018). Fermentation processes in foods also offer products with rich nutritional properties and flavors for consumers. It has increased the interest of discovering natural food fermentation processes, diversity, and properties of microorganisms, associating the process with energy and product quality (Ray & Joshi, 2015). More recently, the consumption of fermented foods containing live microorganisms has emerged as an important dietary strategy for improving human health (Marco et al., 2017). Common microorganism groups in fermentations are bacteria, yeast, and molds. The most important bacteria in the fermentation of foods are those that belong to the Lactobacillaceae family, which produce lactic acid from carbohydrates. Other important bacteria are Acetobacter (mainly from the fermentation of fruits and vegetables) and Bacillus (from the fermentation of legumes) that produce acetic acid. The yeast useful for the desired food fermentation is from the Saccharomyces family, especially S. cerevisiae (Liu, Han, & Zhou 2011; Sengun & Karabiyikli, 2011; Slashinski, McCurdy, Achenbaum, Whitney, & McGuire, 2012). Given the food fermentations (unlike yeastcontaining alcoholic fermentation), the most common lactic acid bacteria in fermented products are primarily responsible for most microbial conversions, and lactic acid bacteria are of great industrial importance. Many are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) microorganisms (Rakhmanova, Khan, & Shah 2018; Silva, Teixeira & Gibbs, 2002). For modern large-scale production of fermented food and beverages, it depends on the use of defined strain starter cultures that replace the unspecified strain mix traditionally used. Transitioning to defined strains means that both culture performance and product quality and consistency have been 201 Sağlık Bilimleri ve Araştırmaları Dergisi / Journal of Health Sciences and Research SABAD, 2020; 2(3), 200-220 significantly improved, while fewer strains are heavily used and trusted by the food and beverage industries (Ray & Joshi, 2015). Live microorganisms are not always used in the production of food and/or beverages by fermentation. Yeast is required for fermentation of bread, beer, wine, and distilled alcoholic beverages. Many fermented foods are heat-treated after fermentation to increase food safety or prolong shelf-life. Thus, fermented sausages are usually cooked after fermentation, and heat treatment is applied to fermented vegetables such as soy sauce, sauerkraut. Even non-heat-treated fermented foods may contain low levels of live or viable organisms, due to unfavorable environmental conditions that reduce microbial populations over time. It is important to note, however, that the presence of viable microorganisms in the final product does not prevent the positive functional role (Rezac et al., 2018). Recently, interest in the consumption of traditional fermented products produced in our country using various raw materials, microorganisms, and production techniques has in (...truncated)