REDUCTION IN ANTINUTRITIONAL AND TOXIC COMPONENTS IN PLANT FOODS (A) BY FERMENTATION

Cereals, legumes, and tubers that are used for the production of ferme nted foods may contain significant amounts of antinutritional or toxic components such as phytates, tannins, cyanogenic glycosides, oxalates , saponins, lectins, and inhibitors of enzymes such as alpha-amylase, trypsin, and chymotrypsin. These substances reduce the nutritional val ue of foods by interfering with the mineral bioavailability and digest ibility of proteins and carbohydrates. In natural or pure mixed-cultur e fermentations of plant foods by yeasts, molds, and bacteria, antinut ritional components (e.g. phytate in whole wheat breads) can be reduce d by up to 50%; toxic components, such as lectins in tempe and other f ermented foods made from beans, can be reduced up to 95%. These reduct ions in anti-nutritional and toxic components in plant foods during fe rmentation are discussed.