Future Prospect of Malaysian Fermented Food Indusrty

840 Words2 Pages

INTRODUCTION
Fermentation refers to reaction of yeast on extracts of fruit or malted grains (Stanbury, Whitaker & Hall, 1995). It is often associated with brewing as alcohol and vinegar are the two first products of fermentation. Although there are many products resulted from fermentation, fermented foods are the most commonly known to consumers. Probiotics which were introduced in the food are good for our health such as reduced risk of getting cancer, improve our intestinal condition and boost our immune system (Parvez et al., 2006). In Malaysia, there are a lot of fermented foods, mostly traditional. Tempeh (fermented soybean) is not only popular in South East Asian countries but also already commercialized in global market. However, other food products like belacan (salted fermented shrimp), tapai (fermented rice) and tempoyak (fermented durian) are not that recognizable to foreigners. This is a challenge since the unique foods have a significant value in food market if promoted in global food market. This paper is aimed to suggest possible ways to develop our fermented food industry into higher level by analyzing the problems with the fermented foods and hence suggesting solution to it.

FOOD FERMENTATION: WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO BE DEVELOPED?
Food fermentation is rather concerned on the process than the products. Food fermentation is said to be beneficial to food industry for several reason as listed by Steinkraus (2002). He stated that fermentation enriched human diet with wide variety of flavours, aromas and textures in food, preserved food through reactions of lactic acid, alcoholic, acetic acid, alkaline and high salt fermentation, enriched our food with natural vitamins, protein, essential amino acids and fatty acid...

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