Handbook of Fermented Functional Foods

Focuses on fermented food products, their production processes, and nutritional and health benefits. This volume presents research on how fermentation of a food changes its composition, adds new nutrients, and produces active ingredients or increases the bioavailability of nutrients.

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Fermented foods have been an important part of the human diet in many cultures for many centuries. Modern research, especially on the immune system, is revealing how these foods and their active ingredients impact human health. Handbook of Fermented Functional Foods presents the latest data on fermented food products, their production processes, and their nutritional and health benefits.

Written by international experts in the forefront of fermented food science and technology, this book explores how fermentation of a food changes its composition, adds new nutrients, produces active ingredients or increases the bioavailability of nutrients, and how the live bacteria in some fermented foods enhance their nutritive health value. It covers fermented foods well known to western consumers - such as yogurt, cheese, pickles, sauerkraut, and fermented meat - and examines fermented foods with long traditions in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa - including gaio, kefir, natto, miso, kimchi, kocho, ogi, and togwa.

In light of our increased knowledge of the health benefits of fermented foods, there is a great need for a single reputable source for current information. Handbook of Fermented Functional Foods fills this void by providing the first state-of-the-art treatment of the production of fermented foods, the microorganisms involved, the changes in composition that occur during fermentation, and most importantly the effect of these foods and their active ingredients on human health.