Bamboo shoot: Microbiology, Biochemistry and Technology of fermentation - a review

Dried-fermented, fermented-canned and fermented-sliced bamboo shoots form a customary grace of different cookeries of the South-East Asian countries. Bamboo shoots are high moisture product, low in fat, cholesterol and high in carbohydrates and dietary fibers. Many nutrients and active materials can be extracted from them. Hence, bamboo shoots are more valuable in pharmaceutical and food processing industries, and can be processed into different beverages, medicines, additives and health foods. The production of bamboo shoots is however, very seasonal and processing of bamboo shoots into various fermented products is too rudimentary, unorganized, non-standardized, region specific and lacks quality control over the final products. There is hardly any product that has created their way into the national and international markets, which is due to the lack of technological advancement in the field of bamboo shoot processing. In this article, the quality attributes of bamboo shoot, its biochemistry and microbiology with note on various traditional fermented food items has been well documented. It is expected that, further study on these aspects help to promote establishment of a bamboo shoot based processing units and will boost the socio-economic and cultural status of the people, along with preservation of the diverse dietary cultures of various ethnic tribes of the country.