There are different methods to conserve foods, and one of them is increasing the acidity. This can be

achieved artificially with the addition of weak acids or naturally by fermentation, obtaining free additive

products. The preservation of food by fermentation is an ancient and widely practiced technology. These

processes were crafted in nature and, obviously, the role of bacteria was not appreciated. Nowadays, it is

accepted that the fermentation processes can be developed spontaneously by the action of native microflora

or by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculation. Fermentation increases not only the product’s shelf

life and microbiological food safety, but also improves the digestibility and nutritional value of the food

(Caplice and Fittzgerald 1999).

The demand for fermented products has experienced an important increase in recent years ever since

consumers recognized that fermentation plays an important and beneficial role in human nutrition

(Spyropoulou et al. 2001). In fact, nearly 25% of the European diet and 60% of the diet in many developing

countries consists of fermented foods (Stiles 1996).