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Soy and legumes from Nigeria

Iru woro (whole-bean iru, Yoruba)irú wóóró

Iru woro is the less-fermented market form of iru, the Yoruba locust-bean seasoning. The seeds are boiled for hours, dehulled, boiled again and left wrapped to ferment, then sold while the beans are still soft but separate.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes31 h – 3.8 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional process with no fixed amounts; only the seeds and water go into it.
African locust bean seeds (Parkia biglobosa)[oluwaniyi2016][zannou2018]
Water, for two boils[zannou2018]
Sand or ash, to help rub off the hullsReported for Benin[zannou2018]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 h – 3.8 days

Start
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What changes: The hard locust-bean seeds boil for hours until the hulls loosen

Step 1 of 4
Boil the seeds for hours
Time
6–12 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: softened seeds.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Iru woro is the less-fermented market form of iru, the Yoruba locust-bean seasoning. The seeds are boiled for hours, dehulled, boiled again and left wrapped to ferment, then sold while the beans are still soft but separate. Made in 4 steps over 31 h – 3.8 days. The longest step, wrap and ferment, stopping while the beans are still whole, takes 24 h – 3 days (Zannou O 2018) and runs at 30 °C (Zannou O 2018). Bacillus subtilis and related species, found consistently in Nigerian iru and Bacillus spp., the main fermenters of Beninese iru do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[zannou2018]Wrap and ferment, stopping while the beans are still whole
Temperature30 °CReported[zannou2018]Wrap and ferment, stopping while the beans are still whole

What makes this one different

Iru woro is partly fermented, so the beans stay separate. Iru pete is fermented to the end and turns to a soft paste. Market woro also held less water (44.74 % against 51.54 %).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Iru peteFully fermented, paste-like form (separate entry).

Safety

Zannou et al. (2018) call fermented locust-bean condiments such as iru safe to eat, but report some Staphylococcus in them, probably from handling during making and selling, so clean conditions are needed. In Beninese iru, staphylococci reached about 10⁶ cfu/g at 12–18 h and fell to about 5 × 10⁴ cfu/g by 48 h (Azokpota 2006). Among 19 Bacillus cereus isolates from Beninese afitin, iru and sonru, seven made cereulide, an emetic toxin; one of the seven came from iru. The authors found no reports of food poisoning from these condiments but say the organism could be a health hazard (Thorsen 2010). In lab trials on inoculated cooked beans at 30 °C, the room temperature in the steps above, cereulide reached 70–99 μg/g by 48 h, and little was made at 40 °C. The same paper says Benin fermentations heat themselves, mostly above 40 °C, and links that to the lack of known illness, so a batch that stays near room temperature is the worrying case (Thorsen 2011). FDA says this toxin survives 121 °C for 30 minutes, so cooking the iru into soup will not remove it.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus spp., up to about 10⁶ cfu/g at 12–18 h in Beninese iru, falling to about 5 × 10⁴ cfu/g by 48 h; Bacillus cereus, including emetic-toxin (cereulide) strains in Beninese locust-bean condiments.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [oluwaniyi2016] Oluwaniyi O.O., Bazambo I.O. 2016, Nutritional and amino acid analysis of raw, partially fermented and completely fermented locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) seeds, African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development 16(2), doi:10.18697/ajfand.74.15025paper
  2. [zannou2018] Zannou O., Chabi I.B., Koca I. 2018, Some traditional fermented food from African locust beans (Parkia biglobosa), production and volatile compounds, GSJ 6(9):673–, reviewpaper
  3. [azokpota2006] Azokpota P., Hounhouigan D.J., Nago M.C. 2006, Microbiological and chemical changes during the fermentation of African locust bean to produce afitin, iru and sonru, International Journal of Food Microbiology 107:304–309 (abstract)paper
  4. [adewumi2012] Adewumi G.A., Oguntoyinbo F.A., Keisam S., Romi W., Jeyaram K. 2012, Combination of culture-independent and culture-dependent molecular methods for the determination of bacterial community of iru, a fermented Parkia biglobosa seeds, Frontiers in Microbiology 3:436paper
  5. [thorsen2011] Thorsen L., Azokpota P., Munk Hansen B. et al. 2011, Formation of cereulide and enterotoxins by Bacillus cereus in fermented African locust beans, Food Microbiology 28:1441–1447 (abstract)paper
  6. [fda-bbb] US Food and Drug Administration 2012, Bad Bug Book, 2nd edition, Bacillus cereus and other Bacillus speciesgov
  7. [thorsen2010] Thorsen L., Azokpota P., Hansen B.M., Hounhouigan D.J., Jakobsen M. 2010, Identification, genetic diversity and cereulide producing ability of Bacillus cereus group strains isolated from Beninese traditional fermented food condiments, International Journal of Food Microbiology 142:247–250 (abstract)paper