There was no moment when one person discovered fermentation and introduced it to the rest of the world. Similar practices emerged independently wherever people lived closely with food, seasons and the natural environment.
Across Europe, shredded cabbage became sauerkraut beneath layers of salt. Throughout Korea, vegetables developed into countless forms of kimchi. Milk was fermented into yoghurt across Central Asia and the Middle East. In Japan, soybeans became miso, soy sauce and natto. Across Africa, cereals, legumes, roots and seeds were fermented to improve safety, digestibility and nutritional value.
Beneath that diversity, the same broad biological principles appear again and again — in places that may have had no contact with one another.