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ABSTRACT
Fish sauce is an amber-colored salty liquid in Southeast Asian cuisine used as an important condiment for improving the taste of foods. It is produced by fermenting the fish with salt in the ratios of 1:1 or 3:1 (fish:salt, wet wt) in underground concrete tanks or earthenware for 6–12 months at ambient conditions. Proteins of the raw materials are hydrolyzed into peptides and amino acids by microbial proteolytic enzymes during fermentation. This paper reviews fish sauce diversity and its bacteriological, biochemical, and biofunctional properties. Additionally, efforts to accelerate fish sauce production by employing halotolerant bacterial cultures and proteinases to reduce the fermentation period and also to improve the acceptability of the product are also reviewed. Further, the review provides an overview of bacterial proteinases that have been employed to enhance the sensory and microbiological quality of fish sauce. The review also outlines the effect of fermented fish sauces on health, especially in reference to several bioactive peptides and bacterial metabolites apart from discussing desalination technique to recover the metabolites from fish sauce.