Tempe: A Vegetarian's Nutritious Delight

If you are a vegetarian and wonder if you score enough nutrition through greens in your daily diet, your query just got an answer.

Charlotte Eklund-Jonsson, a scientist at the Department of Food Science has developed a new food of vegetarian variety called Tempe which has lots of iron and some protein content in it.

The doctoral dissertation conducted by Eklund-Jonsson cites tempe as a whole-grain product with high folate content. The whole grain content is said to bring down cardiovascular diseases, protect against diabetes and some other forms of cancerdefine. The tempe also contains B vitamin folate, a natural form of folic acid which is vital for fetal development.

“Tempe is designed for vegetarians and for people who want to eat less meat for environmental reasons” says Charlotte Eklund-Jonsson. “We also had the environment in mind when we chose to base it on barley and oats, which are suitable to cultivate in Sweden and therefore do not require long transports.”

Tempe is processed through fermentation using micro fungus Rhizopus oligosporus. This process of fermentation is from Indonesia. Soybeans are used in the uncooked form. This from of fortified diet replenishes vital nutrients which you think you might miss, being a vegetarian and can be a successful meat substitute.

Protein quality of wheat and other cereals after fermentation with Rhizopus oligosporus was studied by rat assay methods and amino acid analysis. The growth of rats fed on fermented wheat, improved significantly over those fed unfermented wheat. The protein efficiency ratio (PER) of wheat is multiplied by fermentation. This fortification is somewhat attributed to the augment of lysine in wheat by fermentation. This is an excellent source of essential proteins.

Eklund-Jonsson devised various methods to preserve the high fiber content of cereal grains and similarly enhance their content with iron intake easily. Eklund-Jonsson commented that these two considerations perform against each other.

Research found that, the iron levels increases twice the amount after barley tempe meal compared to unfermented barley. But some other studies show that both oat and barley produced low blood sugar responses and insulindefine responses and is a distinctive type of whole-grain product.

The dissertation is titled “Nutritional properties of tempe fermented, whole-grain barley and oats. Influence of processing conditions on the retention and availability of iron, starch and folates” and it is to be publicly defended soon at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden.

Once the capability of this vegetarian fermented whole grain foodstuff is proved, many vegetarians around the world can be sure that they are getting their daily recommended figures of protein and iron content.