Along with other fermented foods like
yoghurt and kombucha, kimchi is surging
in popularity as a probiotic food -- one that
contains the same kinds of healthy bacteria
found in the human gut. A traditional Korean side
dish, kimchi consists mainly of fermented cabbage,
radish and other vegetables, but it is normally made
using fish sauce, fish paste or other seafood. That
takes it off the menu for vegans, who don’t eat any
products derived from animals. But in order to appeal
to vegan consumers, some producers have begun
making a vegan alternative to traditional kimchi. Brown
University undergraduate researcher Michelle Zabat
says producers swap fish for ingredients like miso,
which is a fermented soybean paste. “We wanted to
know what the effects of making that swap might be
in terms of the microbial community that’s produced
during fermentation,” she says. The study showed
that the vegan and traditional kimchi ingredients had
very different microbial communities to start, but over
the course of fermentation the communities quickly
became more similar. By the time it was complete,
the two communities were nearly identical. “Both
were dominated by lactobacillus and leuconostoc,
genuses well known to thrive in fermented cabbage.
Those bacteria were present only in small amounts
in the starting ingredients for both products, yet
were the only bacteria to survive the fermentation
environment,” Zabat says. “That’s not exactly what
we expected to see. Miso has a lot of live bacteria
in it at the start. The fact that those bacteria were
lost almost immediately during the fermentation was
surprising. We thought they’d carry over to the kimchi,
but they didn’t. That’s likely because bacteria found
in the miso thrive in extremely salty environments,
and the kimchi isn’t quite salty enough for them.”
She says the jury is still out on whether consuming
probiotics actually makes meaningful changes to the
gut microbiome or has any overall health benefits.
But to the extent that consumers want products with
probiotics, and producers want to cater to dietary
restrictions, vegan kimchi appears to fit the bill.
FOOD
MICROBIOLOGY
A LIFELINE
Hunger, malnutrition, poverty
and diseases will continue to
flourish if the world continues
to underfund biotechnology,
nanotechnology, information and
communication technology in
order to control food security,
a renowned food microbiology
professor has warned. Ezekiel
Tejumola Otunola – who works at
the Ladoke Akintola University of
Technology in Ogbomoso – says
governments around the world
must take urgent steps to put
their money where their mouths
are. He blames food wastage for
the alarming situation of global
food and nutrition insecurity,
which has led to serious
consequences – particularly
in children, pregnant women
and the elderly. Since federal
government and other developing
countries have an advantage
over developed nations in terms
of diversity of bio-resources,
they need to emulate them by
focusing on the development of
a bio-based economy. Concerted
efforts had to be made globally to
break the vicious cycle of hunger,
poverty and disease to enable
the world to enjoy a measure
of peace in the future. “It is also
important and, indeed, imperative
that developing countries invest
heavily in research, particularly
those related to biotechnology
and bio-informatics, information
and communication technology,
as well as nanotechnology, which
are the propelling forces for the
ensuing bio-based economy that
may soon dominate the global
landscape. Developing countries
must invest in technologies that
would ensure food security for
their people.
KIMCHI
DISCOVERY
A new study has found that kimchi made without fish products
has the same type of bacteria as more traditionally-made kimchi,
suggesting that any ‘probiotic’ benefits associated with traditional
kimchi could be present in vegan versions as well.
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