Moroccan Fermented Foods and Their Potential Health Benefits

Abstract

In Morocco, fermented foods represent one of the indispensable components of intangible heritage, playing an important role in health, culture, and history. The fermentation process provides desirable features, such as biopreservation effects, nutritional enrichment, and health-beneficial functions. This chapter highlights the diversity of fermented foods from Morocco and their potential health benefits. These food products are traditionally prepared by spontaneous fermentation without the introduction of any selected starter. Fermented foods covered in this chapter include traditional dairy products (raib, smen, lben, jben, zabda baldya, and klila), meat products (keddid, khlii, boubanita, and kourdass), fermented fruits and vegetables (olives, lemons, carrots, capers, onions, pickled pep