Lecture

Fermented Foods: Microbial Transformations and Health Benefits

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

ENG-436: Food biotechnology

The course will deliver basic knowledge on the principles of food fermentation and enzyme technology. The course will also present benefits that food biotechnology can bring in terms of Nutrition & Health and Sustainability. ...

Description

This lecture delves into the microbial transformations and health benefits of fermented foods, showcasing how shotgun metagenomics and metataxonomics have been applied to profile microbial community metabolic functions in various Asian fermented foods. The presentation explores the potential of fermented foods as delivery vehicles for probiotics to underserved communities, emphasizing the importance of controlled fermentations in improving food safety and nutritional quality. The instructor discusses the critical health challenges in underserved communities, such as diarrhea, and highlights the role of probiotics in reducing gastrointestinal infections risk. The lecture also covers the sustainable food processing inspired by nature, focusing on the remarkable similarities in the microbiomes of fermented foods and beverages, even at the species level.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Cell biology: Cell metabolism

Physiology: Nutrition

Chemistry

Biochemistry: Carbohydrates

Related concepts (32)

Fermentation

Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substances through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food production, it may more broadly refer to any process in which the activity of microorganisms brings about a desirable change to a foodstuff or beverage. The science of fermentation is known as zymology.

Lactic acid fermentation

Lactic acid fermentation is a metabolic process by which glucose or other six-carbon sugars (also, disaccharides of six-carbon sugars, e.g. sucrose or lactose) are converted into cellular energy and the metabolite lactate, which is lactic acid in solution. It is an anaerobic fermentation reaction that occurs in some bacteria and animal cells, such as muscle cells. If oxygen is present in the cell, many organisms will bypass fermentation and undergo cellular respiration; however, facultative anaerobic organisms will both ferment and undergo respiration in the presence of oxygen.

Fermentation in food processing

In food processing, fermentation is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms—yeasts or bacteria—under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions. Fermentation usually implies that the action of microorganisms is desired. The science of fermentation is known as zymology or zymurgy. The term "fermentation" sometimes refers specifically to the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol, producing alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer, and cider.

Ethanol fermentation

Ethanol fermentation, also called alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process which converts sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose into cellular energy, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide as by-products. Because yeasts perform this conversion in the absence of oxygen, alcoholic fermentation is considered an anaerobic process. It also takes place in some species of fish (including goldfish and carp) where (along with lactic acid fermentation) it provides energy when oxygen is scarce.

Type system

In computer programming, a type system is a logical system comprising a set of rules that assigns a property called a type (for example, integer, floating point, string) to every "term" (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Usually the terms are various constructs of a computer program, such as variables, expressions, functions, or modules. A type system dictates the operations that can be performed on a term. For variables, the type system determines the allowed values of that term.

Related lectures (64)

Inclusion of Fermented Foods in Food Guides

Discusses the inclusion of fermented foods in global food guides, exploring their benefits and risks, enzyme kinetics, and the history of food enzymes.

Food Biotechnology: Fermented Foods and Microbial Consortia

Delves into fermented foods, umami taste, taste receptors, and microbial consortia in food biotechnology.

Alternative Proteins: Fermentation and Applications

Delves into the use of fermentation for alternative protein production, emphasizing sustainable and innovative food technologies.

Food Fermentation Technology

Delves into the science of food fermentation, covering lactose metabolism, soy food fermentation, human milk production, kimchi making, and bacteria isolation.

Methanogenesis and Methylotrophy: Pathways and Mechanisms