Kinema — a traditional soybean fermented food: proximate composition and microflora

Abstract

Kinema, a soybean fermented alkaline food, is a meat substitute to a majority of the people of the eastern Himalayan regions. The moisture content of kinema was 62%; on dry weight basis, kinema contained about 48% protein, 17% fat, 28% carbohydrate and 7% ash; the energy value was 2·0 MJ/100 g. The corresponding values in raw soybeans were 11%, 47%, 22%, 26%, 5% and 2·1 MJ/100 g. While the pH of raw soybeans was neutral to slightly acidic (average 6·75), that of kinema was distinctly alkaline (average 7·89). Free fatty acidity in kinema was about 33 times higher than raw soybeans. A total of 502 bacterial strains representing Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium, and 198 yeast strains representing Candida parapsilosis and Geotrichum candidum were isolated from 50 samples of kinema. Bacillus subtilis was the only micro-organism recovered in raw soybeans. In kinema, B. subtilis most dominant (3-5 × 10 8 cfu g -1 wet weight) followed by E. faecium (5-9 × 10 7 cfu g -1) occurring in all market and laboratory-made samples. The populations of C. parapsilosis occurring in 50-80% samples was 0·3-9 × 10 cfu g -1, and that of G. candidum occurring in 40-50% of market samples was 0·8-4 · 10 cfu g -1.