Traditional Fermented Food and Beverages of West Bengal: An Extensive Review on Microbiology, Nutrition, and Its Impact on Socio-Economic Condition of the Ethnic Communities

Abstract

From ancient times, fermentation has been utilized globally by various ethnic communities to preserve and store locally available foods items. Traditionally, fermented food and beverages have been an integral part of cultural and social ceremonies of these communities. Fermented food products have been shown to have immense health benefits and are slowly gaining popularity among younger generations. The state of West Bengal (India) has an array of geographically diverse ethnic communities and rich food culture. In this article, a few of the most popular fermented food and beverages across entire West Bengal have been looked into from microbiological and nutritional point of view. The preparation process of each product has been discussed in brief along with the positive and negative aspects of fermented food and beverages. We also compared the main ingredients and end product of fermentation with respect to nutritional value. Many families earn livelihood from selling homemade fermented food and beverages but they should be trained properly to avoid food borne infections, poisoning or fatalities from consumption of fermented products. Development is also needed in making specific government regulations regarding the fermented food and beverages. It is also essential to document and study the existing as well as unexplored fermented food and beverages and standardizing their preparation process as there is a huge scope of commercialization of fermented food products.