• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1219-1225
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• 2022

Microorganisms involved in food fermentation not only improve the aroma and taste of the food, but also enhance its preservation. Thus, they are added as starter cultures to boost the final product quality of commercial fermented foods. Although these microorganisms originate from fermented foods and have a long history of consumption, the European Union recently applied the concept of Qualified presumption of Safety (QPS), which is a safety evaluation system for microorganisms used in food or feed in Europe. The QPS system is a species-level safety system and shares results with the European Novel Food System, a strain-level safety evaluation system. In the United States, microorganisms added to fermented foods are considered as food additives or Generally Recognized as Safe substance. In Korea, food microbe lists are presented at the species level. Moreover, the nation has established a strain-oriented evaluation system that applies temporary safety evaluation methods for food raw materials as well as new raw materials. However, when it comes to microorganisms isolated from traditional fermented foods and other fermented food products, there is no definition of the term "species," and there is a lack of an evaluation system at the species level. Therefore, such an evaluation system for microbial species used in Korean fermented foods is necessary.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.148-165
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• 2020

At beginning the fermentation is naturally occurred by natural microbes. Fermentation techniques apply as two ways, one is fermentation to produce fermented foods and the other is preservation of the foods for longer time for future. They contain various biological active ingredient, like as vitamins. Microorganisms concerning fermentation are well known the functionalities. Each nations in the world have unique and distinct foods and dietary habits on their own specific cultures and accessible edible raw resources of plant or animal origins. Many countries have their unique traditional fermented foods based on their natural conditions. Korea has very famous traditional fermented foods, as Kimchi, fermented soybean products(Jang), fermented fish products(Jeotgal) and vinegar. In this review will discuss the overall fermented foods and typical Korean traditional fermented foods with functionalities, and future effort to enlarge into wide range of new industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.190-197
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• 2011

Chungtaejeon is a traditional tea introduced in the age of the Three States and is the only "Don-cha" culture in the world that survived on the southwestern shore of Korea. To restore Chungtaejeon and to make the tea with consistent quality, the microorganisms involved in traditional type fermentation of Chungtaejeon were isolated, and the tea was prepared with high fermentation ability starters. The sensuous characteristics of Chungtaejeon were also examined. Only Bacilli were found in 3 and 5 year aged Chungtaejeon samples. The Lactobacilli were isolated from properly fermented kimchi and one of them showed high growth capability in media containing green tea extract and also showed strong antagonistic activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, S. aureus, Salmonella, and E. coli. It was identified and named Lactobacillus plantarum CHO25. Chungtaejeon was fermented with a single starter of L. plantarum CHO25 and with a mixed starter (L. plantarum CHO25, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CHO104). The single fermented sample had the highest cell growth after 5 days of inoculation and the level decreased slowly thereafter. The mixed fermented sample showed strong growth of S. cerevisiae. The highest hunter values were the a value of the single fermented sample and the b value of the mixed sample. The single fermented tea showed the best incense score.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.2-10
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• 2017

Human have eaten various traditional fermented foods for a numbers of million years for health benefit as well as survival. The beneficial effects of fermented foods have been resulted from complex microbial communications within the fermented foods. Therefore, the holistic approaches for individual identification and complete microbial profiling involved in their communications have been of interest to food microbiology fields. Microbiome is the ecological community of microorganisms that literally share our environments including foods as well as human body. However, due to the limitation of culture-dependent methods such as simple isolations of just culturable microorganisms, the culture-independent methods have been consistently developed, resulting in new light on the diverse non-culturable and hitherto unknown microorganisms, and even microbial communities in the fermented foods. For the culture-independent approaches, the food microbiome has been deciphered by employing various molecular analysis tools such as fluorescence in situ hybridization, quantitative PCR, and denaturing gradient gel-electrophoresis. More recently, next-generation-sequencing (NGS) platform-based microbiome analysis has been of interest, because NGS is a powerful analytical tool capable of resolving the microbiome in respect to community structures, dynamics, and activities. In this overview, the development status of analysis tools for the fermented food microbiome is covered and research trend for NGS-based food microbiome analysis is also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.265-269
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• 1989

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.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2014

Most microorganisms have been used for foods for such a long period of time with no question posed for their safety. However, the progress of food processing technology has activated international food trades, and the consumers and authorities of import countries have come to question the safety of microorganisms used in foods. At present, the most widely known safety standards are Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) status by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). GRAS status is not for the safety of microorganisms themselves but for the permissibility of strains or cultures in specific food uses. QPS provides a qualified generic approval to a defined taxonomic unit. The increase of commercialized traditional fermented foods in Korea has spurred the starter development for traditional food fermentations. However, starter development in Korea has been carried out based on the technological properties of microorganisms with no research on developing a standardized tool for safety assessment. In the globalization of traditional Korean fermented foods, technological properties as well as safety of future starters should be guaranteed, and establishment of the safety assessment regulation for microorganisms used for foods is necessary.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.39-39
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• 2015

Korean traditional Nuruk has been developed with various materials and shapes according to geographical environments and climates of their origins. Nuruk is also known as kokja in Korea, reflecting the understanding that microorganisms such as wild fungi, yeasts, and lactobacillus bacteria are naturally inoculated and reproduced. The objective of this study is to identify the characteristics of traditional Nuruk through recreating traditional production methods detailed in ancient Korean documents. In the present study, a total of 58 different kinds of Korean traditional Nuruk were prepared, including 46 kinds of recreated products. Each Nuruk sample was evaluated for its enzymatic activities, including glucoamylase, protease, and glucanase. Their suitability for alcoholic beverage production were compared to each other. To isolate valuable microorganisms from Nuruk samples, alcoholic beverages produced using each sample were subjected to sensory evaluation to determine their taste. In addition, metabolite changes in traditional alcoholic beverages fermented with different kinds of Nuruk were analyzed through mass-based metabolomics approach. This study presents, for the first time, the traditional production methods written in ancient Korean documents using workable production methods supported by modern technologies. In addition, this study analyzed the characteristics of reproduced Nuruk. It could be utilized as a basis for studying traditional Korean traditional alcoholic beverages and their valuable microorganisms.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.863-870
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• 2024

Meju, a fermented soybean brick, is a key component in soybean foods like doenjang and ganjang, harboring a variety of microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi. These microorganisms significantly contribute to the nutritional and sensory characteristics of doenjang and ganjang. Amplicon-based next-generation sequencing was applied to investigate how the microbial communities of meju fermented at low and high temperatures differ and how this variation affects the microbial communities of doenjang, a subsequently fermented soybean food. Our metagenomic data showed distinct patterns depending on the fermentation temperature. The microbial abundance in the bacterial community was increased under both temperatures during the fermentation of meju and doenjang. Weissella was the most abundant genus before the fermentation of meju, however, it was replaced by Bacillus at high temperature-fermented meju and lactic acid bacteria such as Weissella and Latilactobacillus at low temperature-fermented meju. Leuconostoc, Logiolactobacillus, and Tetragenococcus gradually took over the dominant role during the fermentation process of doenjang, replacing the previous dominant microorganisms. Mucor was dominant in the fungal community before and after meju fermentation, whereas Debaryomyces was dominant under both temperatures during doenjang fermentation. The dominant fungal genus of doenjang was not affected regardless of the fermentation temperature of meju. Strong correlations were shown for specific bacteria and fungi linked to specific fermentation temperatures. This study helps our understanding of meju fermentation process at different fermentation temperatures and highlights different bacteria and fungi associated with specific fermentation periods which may influence the nutritional and organoleptic properties of the final fermented soybean foods doenjang.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1230-1238
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• 1999

To identify antimicrobial activities of soybean paste, studies have been carried out with laboratory manufactured soybean paste, traditional and improved type soybean paste purchased on the market. The soybean paste fermented with Aspergillus oryzae and Rhizopus tamari and commercial soybean paste were shown antimicrobial activities for Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphy lococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella typhimurium. Non fermented soybean paste did not show antimicrobial activities against Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus faecalis. The extract of soybean paste extracted by 80% methanol showed the highest antimicrobial activities of in ethyl acetate fraction and followed butanol fraction, respectively. Antimicrobial activities of traditional and improved type soybean paste were shown against all tested microorganisms and clear zone length of traditional soybean paste was slightly larger than that of improved type. Components of antimicrobial fractions of soybean paste were guessed peptides, 4 hydroxy benzoic acid, benzoic acid by GC MS.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.656-660
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• 2008

Fermented soybean foods are an important component of the Korean diet. Eoyukjang is a type of traditional fermented soybean source. Microbial analysis of eoyukjang was conducted during the fermentation period in this study. Microorganisms isolated from eoyukjang were identified by biochemical tests and 16S rDNA sequencing. 17 different microorganisms, including bacteria, yeast, and fungi were detected in eoyukjang during the fermentation period. Even though Aspergillus participated in the early stage of fermentation of eoyukjang, Bacillus species and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were the major microzymes in eoyukjang throughout the maturation period. Eoyukjang is generally consumed after the boiling of the final sample. Therefore, the final sample of eoyukjang was boiled and analyzed. Our results showed that no vegetative microorganisms survived under the boiling conditions for eoyukjang. Fermented soybean products in the domestic market were also assessed for comparison with the results from eoyukjang. The total cell number of kanjang (soy sauce) samples was between 0 to 42 CFU/mL. The isolated microorganisms were identified as Bacillus species. All Bacillus isolates were not found to harbor the three enterotoxin-producing and emetic toxin-producing genes.