Microbial food cultures are live bacteria, yeasts or moulds used in food production. Microbial food cultures carry out the fermentation process in foodstuffs. Used by humans since the Neolithic period (around 10 000 years BC) fermentation helps to preserve perishable foods and to improve their nutritional and organoleptic qualities (in this case, taste, sight, smell, touch). As of 1995, fermented food represented between one quarter and one third of food consumed in Central Europe.  More than 260 different species of microbial food culture are identified and described for their beneficial use in fermented food products globally, showing the importance of their use.
The scientific rationale of the function of microbes in fermentation started to be built with the discoveries of Louis Pasteur in the second half of the 19th century. Extensive scientific study continues to characterize microbial food cultures traditionally used in food fermentation taxonomically, physiologically, biochemically and genetically. This allows better understanding and improvement of traditional food processing and opens up new fields of applications.