Tempeh: A semicentennial review on its health benefits, fermentation, safety, processing, sustainability, and affordability

Abstract

Tempeh is a fermented food made of mainly soybeans and is a nutritious, affordable, and sustainable functional source of protein. Globally, tempeh is a widely accepted fermented product. Although there is a growing body of literature on tempeh, most research has focused on unfermented soybeans, thus the impact of tempeh fermentation on biological properties of soybeans has been largely left scattered. The objective of this review is to summarize the literature of tempeh fermentation over the past 60 years. A search of articles on tempeh published from 1960 to 2020 was performed using the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, EBSCOhost FSTA database, and Google Scholar. References from identified articles were reviewed for additional sources. In total, 321 papers were selected for this review, of which 64 papers were related to the health benefits of tempeh. This review concluded that sufficient evidence exists in the literature supporting tempeh fermentation as a low‐cost, health‐promoting, and sustainable food processing technology to produce protein‐rich foods using various beans, legumes, and grains. This comprehensive review suggests further studies are needed on tempeh fermentation and its impact on human health; research and standardization of nonsoy tempeh; assessment of food safety‐improving modification in tempeh production system; and initiatives supporting the sourcing of local ingredients in tempeh production.

Correlations between the Chemical, Microbiological Characteristics and Sensory Profile of Fungal Fermented Food

“…Among the physical changes are an increase in the pH and a decrease in the hardness of the soybean. Chemical changes include an increase in crude protein, soluble protein, amino acid, antioxidant, crude fiber, ash and vitamin as well as a decrease in dry matter, crude lipid and antinutrient compounds [8]. During solid-state fermentation, 65% of the protein in soybeans is hydrolyzed into amino acids [21].…”

“…Recently, tempe has gained more popularity globally due to its health benefits. During fermentation, protein is degraded into amino acids and other metabolites by enzymes secreted by microorganisms [8]. Several amino acids play an important role in determining how the end product will taste, for example, umami, sweet or bitter [9].…”

Data on effect of Tempeh Fermentation on patients with type II diabetes

“…There are many different types of tempeh. Different kinds of tempeh have different characteristics and nutritional changes which might yield different results [5] . To further investigate the effects of this laboratory-made tempeh fermentation on diabetes, an analysis of serum biochemical parameters was made between the pre- and the post-tempeh treatment, the result of which are presented in Table 2 .…”

Fermented food Tempeh induces interleukin 12 and enhances macrophage phagocytosis

“…Tempeh is one of the sources of protein in various traditional Indonesian fermented foods. Tempeh is made from soybeans fermented with Rhizopus (Ahnan-Winarno et al, 2021). When boiled soybeans are wrapped in banana leaves, the Tempeh bacteria on the banana leaves promote fermentation and complete the Tempeh.…”