Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Fermented foods and beverages have been in the Indian food menu since ages. In Himachal Pradesh people have developed traditional food processing technology for preparing conventional fermented foods from locally available substrates largely governed by the ethnic preference, agro-climatic conditions, socio-cultural ethos and religion. Seera is a traditional fermented food prepared in Bilaspur, Kangra, Hamirpur, Mandi, Shimla and Kullu districts of Himachal Pradesh. It is a starch based food made by soaking, crushing and fermenting wheat grains used to prepare sweet dish/snack generally served people during religious fast. Samples during seera fermentation were analyzed for various microbiological and biochemical parameters. The microflora isolated from seera mainly comprised Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Cryptococcus laurentii and Torulosporadelbrueckii among yeasts and Lactobacillus amylovorus and Leuconostocsp. among bacteria. The biochemical analysis of seera revealed that it is an acidic food having a pH of 3.4 and titrable acidity of 0.44%. It has 10.4�0.20 % (w/w) protein, 89.0�0.43 mg/g of dry matter total proteins, 87.4�1.51 mg/g dry matter starch and 11.9�0.53 mg/g dry matter reducing sugars. The activities of amylase and protease were 3.6�0.36 U/g and 1.02�0.05 U/g respectively. A significant increase in thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinic acid and cyanocobalamin was observed during fermentation of seera. The level of essential amino acids especially methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, lysine and leucine also increased during seera fermentation. As seera is biologically enriched with vitamins and amino acids during fermentation so it forms a good source of nutrition to the people who consume it.

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