R & D Trend of The Traditional Fermented Foods in Korea
Korean traditional fermented foods have been diversely developed to enhance taste and flavor while preserving them on a long term basis. For those furthur utilization and development, more efforts to commercialize these products focusing to the consumer's needs should be proceded. In that sence, the fermented foods might be classified into the bioproduct (biofood) and the sterilized. The former defines the non-sterilized such as Kimchi, Jeotkal (fermented fishes), and Jang (fermented soybean products) so as to include various kinds of microorganisms, enzymes and the unknown bioproducts, while the latter defines the sterilized such as soysauce and vinegars proper to the commercialization. In this paper, present R & D status has been reviewed laying stress on Kimchi, Jeotkal and Jang and the mixed fermentation system by the microflora was suggested as a Korean style model for the future R & D direction in these fields.