About 760 papers and patents of the traditional fermented food in Korea were collected which were published during 1917-1988, and then the papers were classified, outlined and reviewed. Study of traditional fermented food was about 10% of total study on Korean Foods, and that of alcoholic beverage was 50%, soy sauce and related product was 30% and kimchi was less than 20% of total study of traditional fermented foods. Though considerable amount of studies were accomplished before the World War II, but a few study was accomplished during the Korean war. The research activity is, hitherto, increasing gradually, but the systematic studies were rarely done. The studies to be investigated were processing quality of raw materials, classification, standardization, sensory quality of the product and so on.