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Fermentation Atlas

Soy and legumes from Japan

Natto (itohiki natto, whole-bean sticky natto)納豆

Whole soybeans are soaked, steamed under pressure and sprayed while hot with Bacillus subtilis var. natto, then kept about 15–20 h in a room near 40 °C. The bacteria coat each bean in a sticky, stringy film made of a glutamic-acid polymer. Cooling stops the fermentation. Made in 5 steps over 2.3 days – 2.7 days. The longest step, cool and mature, takes 24 h (Hasegawa H) and runs at 5–10 °C (Japan Natto Cooperative Society Federation (全…). Bacillus subtilis var. natto does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hMeasured[itic-hasegawa]Cool and mature
Temperature5–10 °CSet[natto-haccp][itic-hasegawa]Cool and mature
AciditypH 6.9–8.1Measured[rocchi2024]Ferment in the warm room (muro)
Fully documentedSoy and legumes2.3 days – 2.7 daysMore soy and legumesMore from Japan

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFactory process with no fixed batch size. The starter dose is from an Ibaraki Prefecture trial that filled 50 g polystyrene cups.
Soybeans · Small-seeded varieties are preferred[natto-haccp][itic-hasegawa]
About 10³ spores per g of cooked beansBacillus subtilis var. natto starter · Diluted in water that has been boiled, then sprayed on the hot beans[natto-haccp][itic-hasegawa]
No salt · Natto is an unsalted ferment[maff-hakko]
Starterdefined-culture (Bacillus subtilis var. natto) since Hanzawa 1919; historically the bacteria on rice straw

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.3 days – 2.7 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a beanup to 20 °C

What changes: Water soaks into the beans until they swell and the two halves close up

Step 1 of 5
Wash and soak
Time
16–20 h
Set
Temperature
up to 20 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus subtilis
B. subtilis

In an Ibaraki trial, beans soaked under 8 h gave harder natto with thinner threads; at least 8 h was needed for a saleable product. Warm, over-long soaking lets other bacteria grow and sours the beans. Lactobacilli added to cooked beans did not harm the ferment in another trial, so the risk is acid formed during the soak. Output: soaked beans.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
beans swell until no gap is left between the two halves
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

washing removes soil microbes; in warm water lactic acid forms and later stops the natto bacteria

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

What makes this one different

Natto has no salt and no koji. A single bacterium does the work in under a day, and it leaves the beans near-neutral or slightly alkaline instead of sour. Rice straw once carried the bacteria; since Hanzawa's pure starter of 1919 makers use a culture.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Mito nattosmall-seeded soybeans; the best-known regional natto
  • Hikiwari nattosoybeans split and dehulled (in Aomori also roasted) before cooking, so the pieces are small and soft; steamed only 10–30 min
  • Wara-zuto natto (straw-wrapped)cooked beans packed in boiled rice-straw bundles; the straw is both wrapper and inoculum; replaced by pure culture after 1919
  • Hoshi natto (dried natto)stringy natto salted, left 15–20 h, floured and sun-dried; machine-dried with 40 °C air to 8 % moisture or less (Kumamoto)
  • Yukiwari natto and Goto nattonatto fermented a second time with salt and rice koji (see separate entry)
  • Momen natto (Fukushima)beans in a cotton bag and reed mat, incubated inside a compost pile of straw and leaves
  • Higan natto (Fukushima)made in a hole under the snow, then hung under the eaves until the spring equinox
  • Higo natto (Kumamoto)incubated buried in earth; leftovers become hoshi natto
  • Hettsui natto (Saitama)incubated once a year in the still-warm cauldron after miso-making
  • Natto powder (UNICEF 1959 project)fermentation cut to 6–8 h, vacuum-dried to 4 % moisture or less, milled

Safety

The natto makers' federation reports no food poisoning caused by natto itself. Steaming at 121 °C for 15 min or more kills pathogens on the beans, and the pure starter then outgrows other bacteria. Rice-straw wrappers have caused poisoning when badly stored, so straw is steamed at 80 °C or more for 30 min before use. Keep natto at 10 °C or below.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus (survives as spores; reddish beans with an off smell); Clostridium (anaerobic spore-former; sewage-like smell when air runs short).

History and sources

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

The word natto appears around 1068, but then it meant salted, mould-fermented soybeans, not sticky natto. Yabe published the first scientific report in 1894, Sawamura isolated Bacillus natto in 1905, and Hanzawa introduced a pure starter and a ventilated warm room in 1919.

  1. [natto-haccp] Japan Natto Cooperative Society Federation (全国納豆協同組合連合会) 2017, 納豆連HACCP, HACCP guidance for small natto makers, prepared with advice from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (draft rev. 9)gov
  2. [itic-hasegawa] Hasegawa H., 製造条件が保存中の納豆品質変化に及ぼす影響 — 浸漬条件 (Effect of soaking conditions on natto quality in storage), Reports of the Ibaraki Industrial Technology Innovation Center 37paper
  3. [itic-nakajima] Nakajima J., Yoshiura T., Hasegawa H., 納豆品質安定化に関する試験研究 — 発酵室湿度の影響 (Effect of fermentation-room humidity on natto quality), Reports of the Ibaraki ITIC 21paper
  4. [itic-lab] Hasegawa H., 納豆発酵不良原因の検討 — 乳酸菌添加の影響 (Lactic acid bacteria as a cause of natto fermentation failure), Reports of the Ibaraki ITIC 27paper
  5. [itic-soak] Hasegawa H., Ichikawa S., Shimada N., 納豆製造合理化に関する研究 (第5報) 浸漬水温が原料大豆 吸水におよぼす影響 (Soak-water temperature and water uptake of natto soybeans), Reports of the Ibaraki ITIC 17paper
  6. [rocchi2024] Rocchi R., Zwinkels J., Kooijman M., Garre A., Smid E.J. 2024, Development of novel natto using legumes produced in Europe, Heliyon 10:e26849, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26849paper
  7. [maff-hakko] MAFF 2023, にっぽんの発酵食品 (Japan's fermented foods), chapters 2–3, natto bacteria and nattogov
  8. [sic-natto] Shurtleff W., Aoyagi A., History of Natto and Its Relatives, SoyInfo Center (chapters 1–3)book