Traditionally produced tempeh harbors more diverse bacteria with more putative health-promoting properties than industrially produced tempeh

Wisnu Adi Wicaksono, Oluwakemi Elizabeth Akinyemi, Birgit Wassermann, Samuel Bickel, Antonius Suwanto, Gabriele Berg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant shift towards industrialization in food production, resulting in the implementation of higher hygiene standards globally. Our study focused on examining the impact of hygiene standards on tempeh, a popular Rhizopus-based fermented soybean product native to Indonesia, and now famous around the world. We observed that tempeh produced with standardized hygiene measures exhibited a microbiome with comparable bacterial abundances but a markedly different community structure and function than traditionally produced tempeh. In detail, we found a decreased bacterial abundance of lactobacilli and enterobacteria, bacterial diversity, different indicator taxa, and significantly changed community structure in industrial tempeh. A similar picture was found for functional analysis: the quantity of bacterial genes was similar but qualitative changes were found for genes associated with human health. The resistome of tempeh varied based on its microbiome composition. The higher number of antimicrobial resistance genes in tempeh produced without standardized hygiene measures mainly belong to multidrug efflux pumps known to occur in plant-based food. Our findings were confirmed by functional insights into genomes and metagenome-assembled genomes from the dominant bacteria, e.g. Leuconostoc, Limosilactobacillus, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Paenibacillus, Azotobacter and Enterobacter. They harboured an impressive spectrum of genes important for human health, e.g. for production of vitamin B1, B7, B12, and K, iron and zinc transport systems and short chain fatty acid production. In conclusion, industrially produced tempeh harbours a less diverse microbiome than the traditional one. Although this ensures production at large scales as well as biosafety, in the long-term it can lead to potential effects for human gut health.
Original languageEnglish
Article number115030
JournalFood Research International
Volume196
Early online date7 Sept 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024

Keywords

  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Fermented food
  • Hygiene standard
  • Metagenome
  • Microbiome
  • Tempeh

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Food Science

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