3 - Traditional Bio-Preservation in Beverages: Fermented Beverages

Abstract

Fermentation is an ancient form of bio-preservation of food, which improves the nutritional content of foods. Fermented beverages are beverages produced by or which have undergone, a process of fermentation including beer, wine, vinegar, cider, and the like, but not spirituous or distilled liquors. The principal yeast species responsible for fermentation is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is used in the production of alcoholic beverages. Fermented beverages may be made from a variety of sugar-containing materials like cereals, fruits and vegetable juices, tea, and milk. Thus, the fermented beverages obtained from different sources are beer from barley, kefir from kefir grains, wine from grapes, cider from apples, sake from rice, mead from honey, and other fermented beverages like probiotics. The fermentation leading to the production of wine, beer, yogurt, kefir, and kumiss increases the storage life of food materials. In addition to traditional beverages for commercial use, nondairy probiotic fermented beverages from a variety of substrates, including soy milk, whey, cereals, and vegetable and fruit juices are also developed. Fermented milks also have modulatory effect and exhibit anticancer prospectives. Worldwide fermented beverages are known for their health-promoting attributes. Based on the recent advancement, it is expected that in the coming era fermented beverages will bag an important rank in the functional food sector. In this chapter, we discuss about the engineering aspects used for the manufacturing of fermented alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages from variant sources like cereals, fruits, milk and from other sources as well as biotechnology of microbial cultures used for fermentation to obtain high yield and better quality with an excellent source of nutrients to improve cognitive properties and to make functional beverage.