From traditional fermented food to microbial food: lessons from local fermented foods

Microbial food, food and ingredients produced leveraging microorganisms, represents a promising pathway toward sustainable and nutritious food systems. Translation of microbial food to everyday life, however, has lagged behind because of economic feasibility, regulations, and public perception. Innovative solutions are awaited to address current bottlenecks of microbial food in feedstock supply, microbial diversity, infrastructure requirements, and societal acceptance. At this point, local fermented food, an indispensable part of sustainable local food systems over a long period of time, can provide clues for innovation. Here, taking Indonesian fermented foods as example cases, we discuss alternative strategies for microbial food development, including feedstock and microbial host diversification, decentralized production, and culinary transformation of microbial biomass. Integrating such lessons from the local traditional fermentation strategies can help drive the translation of microbial food to daily life and sustainable production and consumption of nutritious food for human and planetary health.