Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Soy and legumes from Sahel and savanna West Africa

Soumbala / sumbala (néré seed condiment, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal)soumbala

balls, powder or bars of fermented néré seed; 'African mustard/carob'. Made in 6 steps over 3.8 days – 7.1 days. The longest step, ferment in covered calabashes or on bags, takes 36 h – 4 days (Zannou O 2018) and runs at 28–45 °C (Opai-Tetteh S. 1999). Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step36 h – 4 daysReported[Zannou2018][FR-soumbala]Ferment in covered calabashes or on bags
Temperature28–45 °CReported[OpaiTetteh1999][Zannou2018]Ferment in covered calabashes or on bags
DocumentedSoy and legumes3.8 days – 7.1 daysMore soy and legumesMore from Africa

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
néré seeds (Parkia biglobosa); soybeans increasingly
Starter: spontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.8 days – 7.1 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Néré pods are sun-dried and the seeds shelled and cleaned

Step 1 of 6
Sun-dry pods, shell seeds, pound off yellow pulp
Time
days
Unconfirmed
Temperature
sun
Unconfirmed
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: clean seeds [FR-soumbala].

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

Variants

  • Kinda (Sierra Leone)Bacillus pumilus, B. licheniformis, B. subtilis, B. atrophaeus, B. amyloliquefaciens, B. mojavensis and Lysinibacillus sphaericus were isolated [Tamang2016].

Safety

Biogenic amines from Bacillus isolates of Ivorian soumbala (search summary).

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus.

History and sources

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

  1. [FR-soumbala] French Wikipedia, Soumbalawiki
  2. [WP-Dawadawa] English Wikipedia, Dawadawawiki
  3. [OpaiTetteh1999] Opai-Tetteh S. 1999, The microbial activities involved in the alkaline fermentation of soybeans into dawadawa, MPhil thesis, University of Ghana / Food Research Institute (citing Odunfa 1983)paper
  4. [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)paper
  5. [Tamang2016] Tamang J.P., Watanabe K., Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Review: diversity of microorganisms in global fermented foods and beverages, Front Microbiol 7:377 (citing Meerak et al. 2007/2008, J Gen Appl Microbiol 53:315)paper