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Soy and legumes from Manipur, India

Hawaijarꯍꯋꯥꯏꯖꯥꯔ

Hawaijar is the sticky fermented soybean of Manipur. Whole soybeans are soaked, boiled soft and fermented warm for a few days, where Bacillus bacteria make them alkaline, slimy and slightly pungent. It is made without salt, in homes and for sale.

Fully documentedSoy and legumes3.1 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHousehold craft with no fixed amounts. The times and temperatures below are from a laboratory study that made hawaijar the traditional way.
Soybeans500 g per variety in the laboratory batchWhole, cleaned by hand; no salt is added[Thingujam2025][Jeyaram2008]
Ficus hispida leaves ("hawaijar mana"), or a clean cotton cloth, to line the basketThe review describes a lidded bamboo basket (lubak) with a base layer of the leaves[Khapudang2018]
StarterSpontaneous. No starter culture is added; the Bacillus may come from the raw soybeans, the basket, the cloth or the fig leaves [Keishing2013].

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.1 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a bean37 °C

What changes: Hand-cleaned soybeans soak overnight

Step 1 of 4
Clean and soak the soybeans
Time
Overnight
Reported
Temperature
37 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: soaked soybeans.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Hawaijar is the sticky fermented soybean of Manipur. Whole soybeans are soaked, boiled soft and fermented warm for a few days, where Bacillus bacteria make them alkaline, slimy and slightly pungent. It is made without salt, in homes and for sale. Made in 4 steps over 3.1 days. The longest step, ferment warm in a lined basket, takes 3 days (Thingujam B 2025) and runs at 38 °C (Thingujam B 2025). Bacillus subtilis group does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 daysReported[Thingujam2025]Ferment warm in a lined basket
Temperature38 °CReported[Thingujam2025]Ferment warm in a lined basket

What makes this one different

Hawaijar is a natto-type Bacillus ferment. Unlike kinema it is fermented as whole beans, not cracked.

Related ferments

Safety

A review reports very high counts of Bacillus cereus and Proteus mirabilis (10^7–10^10 cfu/g) in some hawaijar, and enterotoxin and urease genes in isolates, and calls for hygienic, regulated production [Singh2023]. The sources set no numerical limit.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus group (128 of 274 isolates); Staphylococcus aureus; Proteus mirabilis (with B. cereus, up to 10^7–10^10 cfu/g in some products).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Singh and co-authors call hawaijar a culturally and gastronomically important food of Manipur and argue that a regulated food chain would make it safer [Singh2023]. Keishing and Banu say that making it gives income to rural people in Manipur [Keishing2013].

  1. [Jeyaram2008] Jeyaram K. et al. 2008, Molecular identification of dominant microflora associated with 'Hawaijar', a traditional fermented soybean (Glycine max (L.)) food of Manipur, India, Int J Food Microbiol 122(3):259–268, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2007.12.026 (abstract)paper
  2. [Singh2023] Anand Singh T. et al. 2023, Hawaijar, an ethnic vegan fermented soybean food of Manipur, India, a comprehensive review, Food Research International 170:112983, doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112983 (abstract)paper
  3. [Thingujam2025] Thingujam B., Khwairakpam B., Tushir S., Joykumar N., Kaur S. 2025, Effect of processing treatments on physiochemical properties of two varieties of soybean and its characterization for preparation of hawaijar, Scientific Reports 15:44340, doi:10.1038/s41598-025-27870-5paper
  4. [Das2023] Das S., Bhattacharjee M.J., Mukherjee A.K., Khan M.R. 2023, Comprehensive bacterial-metabolite profiles of Hawaijar, Bekang, and Akhone, World J Microbiol Biotechnol 39(11):315, doi:10.1007/s11274-023-03773-3 (abstract)paper
  5. [Gopikrishna2021] Gopikrishna T., Suresh Kumar H.K., Perumal K., Elangovan E. 2021, Impact of Bacillus in fermented soybean foods on human health, Annals of Microbiology, doi:10.1186/s13213-021-01641-9paper
  6. [Khapudang2018] Khapudang R., Sharma S., Joshi V.K. 2018, Indigenous fermented food products of Eastern and Western Himalayan region, a review, Int J Food Ferment Technol 8(2):119–139, doi:10.30954/2277-9396.02.2018.2 (hawaijar section, full text read)paper
  7. [Jeyaram2025] Jeyaram K., Lahti L., Tims S. et al. 2025, Fermented foods affect the seasonal stability of gut bacteria in an Indian rural population, Nature Communications 16:771, doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56014-6paper
  8. [Keishing2013] Keishing S., Banu A.T. 2013, Hawaijar, a fermented soya of Manipur, India, a review, IOSR Journal of Environmental Science, Toxicology and Food Technology 4(2):29–33, doi:10.9790/2402-0422933 (full text read)paper