Food fermentation - Significance to public health and sustainability challenges of modern diet and food systems

Current modern dietary patterns throughout the world have resulted in adverse health implications. On the other hand, current agricultural practices and methods employed in food industries lead to the exploitation of the environment and generate nutrient-rich waste, which is underutilized. The simple answer to both these problems could be the adoption of fermentation technology. Due to the presence of functional microorganisms, fermented foods possess unique properties like probiotics properties, antimicrobial, antioxidant, peptide production, etc., imparting health benefits to consumers. Moreover, agricultural and food processing waste fermentation could generate value-added healthy foods and sustainable food sources. Not only this, fermented food products can be an essential source of generating livelihoods by producing necessary food ingredients through fermentation of commonly generated organic wastes in rural areas and encouraging and promoting traditional fermented recipes that are also healthy. This review discusses how reviving and promoting food fermentation technology can help reduce these two problems related to health and sustainability. Furthermore, the role of lactic acid bacteria and fungi like yeast, Penicillium, Acetobacter etc., in producing beneficial metabolites and their impact on controlling various lifestyle disorders and aging have been discussed. In addition, fermented foods also enrich gut microbiota, which imparts health benefits.