Industrial Fermentation: Principles, Processes, and Products

Abstract

Humans were well aware of fermentations, even though they had little knowledge of what caused them, long before they were able to record such an awareness. Sometime in prerecorded history, people discovered that meat allowed to stand a few days was more pleasing to the taste than meat eaten soon after the kill. They also were aware that intoxicating drinks could be made from grains and fruits. The aging of meat and the manufacture of alcoholic beverages were human's first uses of fermentation.