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When did fermented foods become popular?

Colin van der Meer
Colin van der Meer
2025-10-06 16:22:16
Count answers : 24
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People have been fermenting food since before the written word. Thanks to archaeological discoveries, we know that 13,000 years ago ancient Natufian culture in the Levant was fermenting grain into beer and that around the globe in Jiahu, Northern China, 9,000 years ago, a mixture of rice, honey and fruit was fermented to make early “wines”. In fact, most cultures have at some point in their history fermented plants into alcohol, from agave pulque in Mesoamerica to gum-tree way-a-linah in Australia. As to preserving food, archaeologists have found that nearly 10,000 years ago fish was fermented by the Mesolithic inhabitants of Sweden.
Faas Houdijk
Faas Houdijk
2025-10-06 13:19:42
Count answers : 30
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Fermented foods have been important to many cultures for millennia, popularised not only to aid the preservation of raw materials, but to also enhance their flavours, textures and nutritional properties. The practice of food fermentation has been used to preserve raw materials since the Neolithic period, making fermentation one of the oldest methods of food preservation. In earlier periods, knowledge of food fermentation techniques was primarily shared verbally through generations, and the foods and drinks that were produced were limited by locality, including availability of raw materials, environmental conditions and taste preferences. However, this current prevalence pales in comparison to more ancient periods, where more than 70% of the average diet was believed to be composed of fermented foods. Despite this decline in consumption, many ancient fermentation-derived products have sustained their popularity throughout time.

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