Fermented foods are essential components of people's diets in many parts of the world, especially in Asia. Primitive sour milk and cheese were produced in Mesopotamia in 6000 BC (Hosono 1997), while wine was drunk as early as 4000 BC (Nojiro 1988). It is believed that production and preservation of foods utilizing fermentation were diffused into the lives of ancient people (Kozaki et al. 1998). Records have shown that most of the ancient fermented foods originated in Central Asia, then slowly spread to China, Europe, and other parts of the world...
