Traditional dairy fermented products in Central Asia

Human populations from Central Asia have a cultural background mainly evolved from nomadic systems based on breeding different animal species (cattle, horse, sheep, goat, camel, yak, reindeer) explaining the domination of animal proteins (meat, milk) in their diet. In their living conditions, the most popular way to preserve a highly perishable product such as milk was fermentation. The combination of both the variety of animal species and the process of changing from one ethnic group to another, led to a remarkable diversity of fermented products, such as ayran, qurt, irimshik, souzma, ryazhznka, prostokvasha, tan, kefir, qymyz, shubat, chal or khoormog. Physicochemical properties (when it was possible) and the natural lactic acid bacteria microbiota and yeasts responsible for spontaneous fermentation have been widely researched emphasising the high microbial biodiversity. In the future, better knowledge of this biodiversity could contribute to sustain consumption of traditional fermented dairy products.