Miso fermented on the International Space Station is out of this world

For the first time, fermentation has been achieved in space. Miso made aboard the International Space Station (ISS) aged faster than the controls kept on Earth and contained more fungal mutations.

Miso is a Japanese condiment made by fermenting cooked soybeans, kōji (a starter culture containing the fungus Aspergillus oryzae) and salt. Similar to other fermented foods like sourdough , misos also contain microbes that originate from the environment in which they’re made, and the people who make them. As such, misos can be said to have a terroir, a term originating in winemaking that can be likened to a ‘taste of a place’, or in this case, a ‘taste of space’.