Safeguarding Grandma's fermented beverage recipes for food security: Food safety challenges

Abstract

Fermented products are mainly produced at the household level and consumed as stable foods by local people, and sold on local markets; majority of them are unknown by up-market population. Recently, public information on potential health benefits of fermented products increased the demand for them and consumers’ willingness to pay, especially during COVID-19. Integration of these products to the global market is essential for food security, sustainable production, success of the food market, and the economy of the country. However, pre- and post-processing contamination and product inconsistency constitute a major challenge to the market value of traditional food products. The Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) was applied for quantification of risk analysis of ten traditional fermented beverages that majority of them are virtually less well known outside of the specific regions of Turkey. Generally speaking, high risk priority numbers, (RPN≤720), were commonly observed in majority of productions since they were using intensive human handling, applying obsolete technologies, and employing people that have no food processing and hygiene training. It is concluded that improving a technology and integration of local peoplecentered, knowledge-based support programs were required for sustainable production of these products. Comprehensive real data collected from visits to farms located in different regions of Turkey over six years were used for the analysis. Results from this study may help manufacturers from different parts of the world in producing safer fermented beverages that share common ingredients, equipment, and manufacturing stages.