Multivariate analysis, such as principal component analysis and artificial autoassociative neural networks, is currently extensively applied to feature capturing, physiological state recognition, fault detection and bioprocess control. However, it is not clear which process variable should be selected as an important input for multivariate analysis to analyze physiological conditions and/or bioprocess performance a priori. An efficacious method to select more informative process variables from the repository of historical data is highly desired. In this study, we focused on a premodeling step. Mean hypothesis testing (MHT) was used to select appropriate variables for multivariate analysis. Fermentation data sets were classified into two classes "good" and "bad" according to the MHT results. The results showed that selecting discriminating process variables from the historical database by MHT enhanced the overall effectiveness of multivariate analysis prior to principal component analysis and artificial autoassociative neural network model creation.