Overview of Microbials in Traditional Chinese Fermented Soybean Products: Origin, Functionality and Flavor Profile

ABSTRACT

The core reason for the nutritional richness and special flavour composition of traditional Chinese fermented soybean products lies in the diversity of microbial structures and their metabolites, which include a variety of potential probiotics. However, relatively little mainstream research has been conducted on these microorganisms, especially in regions with unrelated product dietary habits, limiting the high-value utilisation of the characteristic microbial resources. In order to enhance the efficient use and functional exploitation of microbial resources in Chinese traditional fermented soybean products, this paper investigated and reviewed a variety of products such as soybean paste, soy sauce, douchi, sufu, and fermented soybean milk, and carried out a detailed analysis of the sources, flavour characteristics, and potential functionality of microorganisms therein, which elucidated that the microorganisms in Chinese traditional fermented soybean products have the potential to be used as functional probiotics, with a view to contributing to the probiotic resources exploitation, novel food development, and the development of new food products, as well as the development of new foods.

KEYWORDS:

• Fermented soybean products
• flavor properties
• microorganism structure

HIGHLIGHTS

• The nutritional and flavor composition of Chinese fermented soybean products were systematically summarized.

• The microbial composition and function of fermented soybean products were summarized.

• The deficiency and prospect of microbial utilization in traditional fermented soybean products were proposed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Lei Cai: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft.

Jian Chen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing.

Junjie Gao: Software.

Hongling Fu: Visualization, Software.

Wendan Jing: Validation.

Weichang Dai: Formal analysis.

Sainan Wang: Software.

Zhaohui Wang: Formal analysis.

Bo Lyu: Data curation, Supervision, Conceptualization.

Hansong Yu: Funding acquisition, Supervision.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (Project No. CARS-04), the Science and Technology Department Plan Project of Jilin Province (20220202069NC)