The Influence of Different Pretreatment Methods of Highland Barley by Solid-State Fermentation with Agaricus sinodeliciosus var. Chaidam ZJU-TP-08 on Its Nutrient Content, Functional Properties and Physicochemical Characteristics

To enhance the nutritional value of highland barley (HB), this work investigated the effects of solid-state fermentation (SSF) by Agaricus sinodeliciosus var. Chaidam ZJU-TP-08 on nutrient content, phenolic components, antioxidant activities, and physicochemical characteristics of HB upon different pretreatments (germination, ultrasound and soaking). The results showed that germinated highland barley (GHB) exhibited higher levels of ergosterol (0.19 ± 0.01 mg/g) in all fermentation groups. The content of β-glucan was higher in the SSF-GHB, with an increase of 24.21% compared to the control. The content of total amino acids, dietary fiber, total phenols and flavonoids were higher in the fermentation HB pretreated by ultrasound, increasing respectively by 5.60%, 61.50%, 25.10% and 65.32% compared to the control group. In addition, the colonized HB exhibited excellent physicochemical characteristics, including increased water solubility index and decreased pasting characteristics. Herein, the nutritional value and the biological activities were enriched in the pretreated HB through SSF, indicating its potential application for nutrition-enriched functional foods.

Tempeh: A semicentennial review on its health benefits, fermentation, safety, processing, sustainability, and affordability

Tempeh is a fermented food made of mainly soybeans and is a nutritious, affordable, and sustainable functional source of protein. Globally, tempeh is a widely accepted fermented product. Although there is a growing body of literature on tempeh, most research has focused on unfermented soybeans, thus the impact of tempeh fermentation on biological properties of soybeans has been largely left scattered. The objective of this review is to summarize the literature of tempeh fermentation over the past 60 years. A search of articles on tempeh published from 1960 to 2020 was performed using the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EBSCOhost FSTA database, and Google Scholar. References from identified articles were reviewed for additional sources. In total, 321 papers were selected for this review, of which 64 papers were related to the health benefits of tempeh. This review concluded that sufficient evidence exists in the literature supporting tempeh fermentation as a low-cost, health-promoting, and sustainable food processing technology to produce protein-rich foods using various beans, legumes, and grains. This comprehensive review suggests further studies are needed on tempeh fermentation and its impact on human health; research and standardization of nonsoy tempeh; assessment of food safety-improving modification in tempeh production system; and initiatives supporting the sourcing of local ingredients in tempeh production.