Explain Fermented Vegetable Foods

Vegetables either in raw or cooked form as salad preparations, soup, dry vegetables and curry or as stuffing in a variety of snacks. But, do you know, we can even consume these by making fermented products. Can you  think of any such food item?  Yes, of course, it is pickles which all of us relish sometimes or the other.

Let us learn about these fermented vegetable products and see which microorganisms

are involved in their preparation.

i)  Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is a  fermented fresh cabbage product.  It  is popular in USA and Europe. The main organism which is involved in the fermentation of this pickle is lactic acid bacteria,  Leuconostoc mesenteroides  followed  by  Lactobacillus plantarum.

ii)  Cucumber pickle

Cucumber pickle is a  fermentation product of fresh cucumbers. Several lactic acid bacteria are involved in the preparation of this pickle. Lactobacillusplantarum  is the most  important organism required for the  fermentation of cucumber pickle.