Majority of global fermented foods is naturally fermented by culturalable and non-culturable microorganisms. Food fermentations represent an extremely valuable cultural heritage in most regions, and harbour a huge genetic potential of valuable but hitherto undiscovered strains. Holistic approaches for identification and complete profiling of both culturalable and non-culturable microorganisms in global fermented foods are interest to food microbiologists. The application of molecular and modern identification tools through culture-independent techniques has thrown new light on the diversity of a number of hitherto unknown and uncultivable microorganisms in naturally fermented foods. Functional bacterial groups (“phylotypes”) may be reflected by their mRNA expression in a particular substrate and not by mere DNA-level detection. An attempt is made here to review the microbiology of some global fermented foods and alcoholic beverages.

Fermented foods have unique functional properties imparting some health benefits to consumers due to presence of functional microorganisms, which possess probiotics properties, antimicrobial, antioxidant, peptide production, etc. Health benefits of some global fermented foods are synthesis of nutrients, prevention of cardiovascular disease, prevention of cancer, gastrointestinal disorders, allergic reactions, diabetes, among others. The present paper is aimed to review the information on some functional properties of the microorganisms associated with fermented foods and beverages, and their health-promoting benefits to consumers.

In this study, Lactobacillus plantarum strain DHCU70 isolated from dahi, a fermented milk product and L. plantarum strain DKP1 isolated from kinema, a fermented soybean food of India, respectively were evaluated for their bacteriocin production and probiotic properties. Both strains of L. plantarum (DHCU70 and DKP1) were found to have potent antimicrobial activity against Kocuria rhizophila ATCC 9341. Bacteriocin produced by L. plantarum strains DHCU70 and DKP1 did not exhibit inhibition of cell wall, DNA and fatty acids biosynthesis mechanisms as evaluated by whole cell reporter assays. We characterized the bacteriocin encoding genes in L. plantarum strains DHCU70 and DKP1 by whole genome sequence which consisted of a single and circular chromosome with genome size of 3.38 Mb (GC content of 44.3%) and 3.39 Mb, respectively and a GC content of 44.3%. L. plantarum DHCU70 has 3252 number of protein encoding genes comprising 89 number of RNA genes (69tRNA, 16rRNA, 4nc RNA) whereas L. plantarum DKP1 has total of 3277 number of protein encoding genes with 89 number. of RNA genes (69tRNA, 16S rRNA, 4nc RNA). Analysis revealed the presence of 20.5 kb long and 23 numbers of plantaricin encoding locus (pln locus) for production of antimicrobial compound. BAGEL analysis has shown that the pln locus of both the strains of L. plantarum showed maximum sequence similarity with plantaricin NC8 of L. plantarum NC8, originally isolated from grass silage. Annotated whole genome sequence of both strains DHCU70 and DKP1 was analyzed for the presence of probiotic marker genes. The probiotic properties of these strains of were also evaluated in vitro. Due to the presence of genes responsible for antimicrobial activity and probiotic properties, both strains of L. plantarum may be considered as a suitable probiotic candidate in food industry.