Traditional Fermented Indian Foods: A Treasure Hunt for Rare Lactic Acid Bacteria

Diversity of Indian fermented foods is related to incomparable food culture of each community. Various types of Indian ethnic fermented foods and beverages are produced either naturally or by adding mixed starter cultures using traditional or scientific knowledge of food fermentation (Sekar and Mariappan, 2007). In India, particularly in its hilly states, fermented foods are regularly being consumed by the people since ages (Kore et al., 2012). These traditional fermented foods are untapped treasure hunts for rare Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) with immense health benefits. LAB play an important role in the traditional fermentation processes by their functional properties such as biopreservation, bioenrichment of nutritional value, bioavailability of minerals, production of antioxidants, antimicrobial activities, and probiotic properties (Akbar et al., 2016; Gautam and Sharma, 2015).