Metagenomic and chemical analysis of Tarhana during traditional fermentation process

Abstract

Tarhana is one of the favourable traditional fermented food consumed as a soup. Different flour, vegetables, spices and yogurt are main constituents and they compose of microbiota of Tarhana. In this study, bacterial communities in each fermentation process and in their constituents were identified by metagenomic analysis. Also, chemical properties (pH, acidity, salt content and dry matter) were analysed in each step. The results showed that in the dough formation, mainly Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Enterococcus and Streptococcus were present and after Day 4, Clostridium and Bacillus became dominant, after drying Clostridium disappeared and in the final product bacterial communities from Bacillus and Streptococcus genus were observed. Chemical analysis showed that pH decreased from 4.94 to 4.46, acidity increased by time at the beginning of fermentation from 7.5% to 22.5% in first 6 days period, then, became stable at 14% in drying process. Salt content increased by time from 1.74 to 3.08 g salt/100 g Tarhana in first 8 days and in drying process salt content was recorded as 2.81-2.90 and dry matter was obtained as 94 g dry matter/100 g Tarhana in the final product. This study elucidated the effects of ingredients, raw materials and how microbiota and chemical properties changes during fermentation steps of home-made traditional Tarhana production and thus preparation methods could be developed to obtain standardized Tarhana products for industrial production in future.