FUNGAL STARTER CULTURES FOR FERMENTED FOODS - MOLECULAR ASPECTS

Mould-fermented foods are produced with the help of fungal starter cultures, which are added to the foods as spore suspensions to ensure predictable fermentation results. Most fungal strains used today are screened and isolated from the native pool of organisms found in the food habitat. These strains do not always meet the requirements of modern food production. Few strains are toxicologically unobjectionable, and methods for developing new strains with new characteristics would be advantageous. This article discusses the current status of gene technology methods to improve fungal starter cultures for the production of mould-fermented foods.