Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(4): 1873-1883 1873 Review Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.704.214 Traditional Fermented Products of India K. Rawat 1* , A. Kumari 1 , S. Kumar 2 , R. Kumar 2 and R. Gehlot 1 1 Centre of Food Science and Technology, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Haryana, Hisar, 125 004, India 2 Department of Microbiology, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Haryana, Hisar, 125 004, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Traditional Indian foods have been prepared for many years and preparation varies across the country. In India fermented foods and beverages are the fundamental part of ethnic heritage. One of the traditional oldest and most cost-effective methods for producing and preserving food is fermentation (Jeyaram, 2009). It has been practiced since ancient time by the antique man as the cost-effective method for providing longevity to fermented products (foods and beverages). Traditional fermented food preparation is one of the oldest biotechnological processes around the world (Sekar and Mariappan, 2007). Traditional fermented foods are defined as foods produced by native people using their inherited knowledge and skillful technology from vicinity available plant or animal raw International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 04 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Traditional fermented products are those products with are indigenous to people and people of the local area prepare them with the help of their ethnic knowledge from the ancestors. There are uncountable varieties of traditional food present in the world. One such country is India, where numerous varieties of traditional food products are present due to the variation in culture, geographical indication and variability in the raw material present in that particular locality (grains, milk, plant sources). In past, to enhance the shelf life of the food product many food processing and preservation techniques were introduced in household level such as smoking, drying, fermentation and germination. Out of these technique the best techniques for the preservation of food was fermentation. Fermentation is bioprocess technology which is practiced since time immemorial. Fermentation technology lead to the formation of two products: fermented food and fermented beverage. Fermentation is manly done with the help of microorganism, specifically lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The microorganism involved in fermentation are generally probiotic in nature means they are good for the human health and when these microorganism are grown in the food product they enhance the nutritional property, with increasing the therapeutic property of the food. Fermented food must be eaten daily in human diet and some standardization technique should be developed so as these fermented product can be sale in the market which will be source of income generation to the villagers. Keywords Fermentation, Lactic acid bacteria, traditional, Food, Beverage Accepted: 16 March 2018 Available Online: 10 April 2018 Article Info