Indigenous fermented foods of Latin America

Abstract

Household fermentation of foods has a long and very important tradition in Latin American countries. The objective of this work is to shine a light on current knowledge of the biotechnological processes involved in the production of indigenous fermented foods from Latin America. There is little scientific publications on the beneficial properties and/or production of indigenous fermented foods, reason for which in this Chapter, a special emphasis will be placed on foods that are not currently mass-produced. The use of modern scientific tools and techniques now allow us to mine knowledge from the past and allow us to use it to produce novel beneficial foods in the future. The identification and isolation of microorganisms from these indigenous fermented foods of Latin America could help in the fight to prevent world hunger or at the very least improve the food safety of these foods that have been consumed for thousands of years without being adequately studied.