Taste and flavor components of seafood fermented in whey-containing rice bran

Whey (a byproduct of cheese production) is rich in nutritional and functional components. Its content of live lactic acid bacteria used in cheese production was expected to support its utilization in the production of fermented food. In this study, rice bran-fermented saury fish was produced using whey-containing nukadoko (a rice-bran bed traditionally used in Japan for pickling vegetables). The results showed that lactic acid bacteria in the whey were propagated in the rice-bran bed and survived in large numbers during nine days of rice-bran fermentation. It was also found that saury fermented in the whey-containing rice-bran bed contained more free amino acids and volatile components (such as esters) than that fermented in a traditional rice-bran bed without whey. These results suggest that the use of whey in rice-bran fermentation accelerates the fermentation/process.