Department of Food Process Engineering, S.H.I.A.T.S (Formerly, Allahabad Agricultural Institute)-Deemed University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Online published on 10 November, 2016.
A traditional fermented food made from soybean fermented with Bacillus subtilis, is most popular in Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim and is a means of livelihood in many regions of northeast India. Fermented soybean is considered as healthful food as claimed by medical researches but is perishable with a very low shelf-life.
Nutritional properties of naturally fermented soybean as affected by the storage at ambient and refrigeration conditions was studied and reported here. The soybeans after fermentation were tray and solar dried and their nutritional properties were determined at varying time intervals (0, 30, 60 and 120 days). Their moisture, ash, protein, crude fibre and yeast and mold counts were determined on the successive days of storage to assess the suitability to consumers. The result showed that with the increase of storage period there was a considerable increase in moisture content (from 8.9% to 11.89%), significantly decrease in protein content (from 29.10% to 27.50%) and the amount of crude fiber (from 6.52% to 4.28%). However, there was a little change in ash content (from 1.30% to 1.28%). Samples that were stored in refrigerating conditions showed comparatively less loss than others. Moreover, higher changes were observed in the samples that were sun dried than dried mechanically. The same trend was observed in the samples stored at ambient conditions. The microbiological evaluation revealed even on the 120 days of storage the yeast and mold count was within the permissible limit (7.8×102 cfu/g) and the product was acceptable for consumption.
Fermented soybeans, Hawaijar, Bacillus subtilis, storage, drying, nutrition, tray, solar
