Today, some uncertainties still exist regarding how to define different fermented meats. Adams (1986) thus describes fermented food in three categories: 1) those in which microorganisms play no or little part, such as tea fermentation; 2) those in which microbial growth, though an essential feature, does not involve fermentative metobolism, such as the
production of tempeh; and 3) the true fermentations, which produce, e.g., lactic acid in products such as salami.