What is Koji & Tane-koji?
Tane-koji is a product name which made by cultivating koji spores to provide koji mold for koji making.
Tane-koji is the basic ingredient for making miso, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and shochu, which are the main ingredients of Japanese food “washoku”.
In recent years, koji fermentation with tane-koji is also used as a cooking technique in restaurants all over the world.
Overview of fermented food production method
During the process of growing on raw materials, koji mold produces various components such as enzymes.
Koji plays three main roles in the production of brewed foods.
The first is the breakdown of raw materials by enzymes. Second, the components produced by the breakdown of raw materials become nutrients for yeast and lactic acid bacteria, and third, the components produced by the breakdown of raw materials create flavor and aroma of fermentation foods.
Definition of koji mold by the Brewing Society of Japan.
Koji mold is a microorganism that lives in the air and rice plants in Japan.
Even among the koji mold stains defined by the Brewing Society of Japan, there are many strains with different detailed characteristics. Bio’c possesses approximately 3,000 different strains. We have been technically supporting manufacture of brewed foods by using different strains for different characteristics of each strain, the balance of enzymes produced since 600 years ago, so that the final product will be what our customers want.
Tane-koji is made by evenly sprinkling spores of koji molds, which are the original mold, on steamed rice or other ingredients, and controlling temperature and humidity for about a week.
“Granular tane-koji" is made by packaging the seed koji as it is, and "powdered tane-koji" is made by separating the spores from the rice and adjusting the number of spores with alpha starch to make them uniform. Powdered tane-koji can be mixed with multiple strains of mold with different characteristics.
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Powdered tane-koji
Since the number of spores in 1g of each production lot is stable and it is possible to mix strains with different characteristics, it is widely used by both brewing companies and individuals.
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Granular tane-koji
It is mainly used by sake brewers who manually inoculate koji mold using a sieve, and by shochu brewers who make koji mold using a drum-type machine. (*Only granular seed koji for sake and shochu are available.)
Application of fermentation technology using tane-koji
In addition to brewing, seed koji is applied in various other fields such as beauty and health, SDGs, and gastronomy.
BIO'C also helps customers develop new materials that add value by converting their own materials into koji.
Home- About Tane-koji(seed koji) (rice malt)
