• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.458-463
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• 2015

Many Koreans, who are resident in Uzbekistan and Central Asia, are still avid fans of the Korean traditional soybean paste. No research study has been conducted on the Korean-Uzbekistanis soybean paste. The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality characteristics of the Korean-Uzbekistanis fermented soybean paste. Nine kinds of soybean pastes prepared by Korean-Uzbekistanis were collected, and their physiochemical properties (protease activity, amylase activity, amino type nitrogen content, reducing-sugar contents, and aerobic bacterial count) have been analyzed. The Korean-Uzbekistanis' fermented soybean paste (KU-SP) showed higher protease activity than the Korean fermented soybean paste (K-SP). The protease activities of KU-SP B, D, and H were 832, 807 and 630 unit/g, respectively, which were significantly different from others. In addition, the content of amino-type nitrogen in KU-SP B, D, and H were 777 mg%, 686 mg%, and 705 mg%, respectively. In the meanwhile, ${\alpha}$-amylase activities showed wide ranges starting from 10.82 to 47.98 unit/g. The KU-SP values, except for the KU-SP C, have shown higher activities than the K-SP. The reduced sugar content and totoal aerobic bacteria number were within the range of 0.55~3.43%/g and 7.24~8.79 log CFU/g, respectively. Finally, this research provided the basic data and information for the quality characteristics of commercial soybean paste prepared by the Korean-Uzbekistanis. These basic data can be useful for understanding the Korean food culture in Central Asia.