Fermented food in Egypt: A sustainable bio-preservation to improve the safety of food

Abstract

The research in agricultural microbiology has experienced great changes in the past few decades, resulted in today’s systematic farming that is a backbone of the economy all over the globe (Verma and Srivastav, Microorganisms in sustainable agriculture, food, and the environment. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, 2017). The production of fermented milk and cheeses made from raw milk of cows or other animals (cows, buffalo, camels, goat, and sheep) is an agri-food sector with high production volumes and product diversification in all the countries. Milk and dairy products play a role of primary importance in the diet of local consumers of all ages for the supply of essential nutrients such as high biological value proteins, vitamins, and minerals. These products also represent a resource for the economic sustenance of marginal areas and, for their high quality and genuineness, deserve a boost for expansion on a global scale market. Also, raw milk for direct consumption can be considered a typical product for countries, such as Egypt, where most consumers consider it safer than heat sanitized milk for a deeply rooted popular belief. Fresh milk in Egypt is mostly used to prepare traditional products such as cheese (White, Karish, Mish, and Ras), yogurt, Rayeb, Labneh, and butter. However, the many microbiological hazards and deterioration processes that can occur in raw milk and derived products pose a public health risk and determine a very short shelf-life of the product which is an obstacle for its distribution at longer distances. The effect of the implemented natural preservation on fermented products’ compositional characteristics, the chapter will be focused on this point.