Nutritional improvement of lentils, chick pea, rice and wheat by natural fermentation

Effect of natural fermentation process (4 days) on the non-protein nitrogen, crude and true protein, amino acids content and in vitro digestibility of two kinds of legumes (lentils and chick pea) and two kinds of cereals (rice and wheat) was investigated. Non-protein nitrogen increased significantly (p < 0.001) in the fermented products. Little increase has occurred in the crude protein while no significant change was observed in the fermented true protein samples. It was observed that methionine and cystine which are considered the limiting amino acids in legume seeds were close to those of FAO/WHO patterns. Also, lysine content (the first limiting amino acid in cereals was higher in fermented rice than that of FAO/WHO pattern. Moreover, fermentation process improved significantly, the in vitro digestibility of both legume and cereal products.