Promoting Korean Fermented Foods
Korean ferments are gaining popularity amongst U.S. consumers, and Korean agriculture leaders are trying to increase exports of Korean-made fermented foods to the U.S. At the first Korean Fermented Food Forum this month in Washington D.C., industry leaders shared their expertise on the future of Korean ferments in the American market.
“If you’re going to look at and work with fermented foods, you really have to look at Korea because that’s where all the action is, that’s where all the good food is,” says Fred Breidt, PhD, microbiologist with the USDA (and a TFA Science Advisor). Breidt was the keynote speaker at the event. “It’s becoming more and more popular to use these kinds of foods for their tremendous flavors that they can impart to food products and their health benefits as well.”
The forum was sponsored by Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT Corporation). It coincided with celebrations earlier that week for November 11 being designated as Kimchi Day being in Washington D.C. and Virginia. They join New York and California, which ratified Kimchi Day in the respective states in 2021. The aT Corporation is actively leading efforts for all U.S. states to designate a Kimchi Day.
“With the growing global popularity of Korean food, I am delighted and eager to promote awareness and educate consumers on the health benefits of kimchi and Korean fermented food products, such as kimchi, fermented soybeans, salted seafood and vinegar,” says Choon Jin Kim, president of the aT Corporation. He called kimchi “Korea’s staple fermented soul food. I believe the reason that Americans enjoy kimchi so much is that the many qualities of Korean fermented foods, such as its excellent nutritional value, health benefits and taste, are beginning to shine.”
Major Growth
Sales of Korean fermented foods are growing exponentially in the U.S. According to U.S. retail sales figures tracked by The Fermentation Association and SPINS data, kimchi increased in sales by 22% in 2022, totaling $37.56 million in sales. Sales of gochujang grew 8% in 2022, totaling $6.57 million in sales.
“It’s a wave that’s been coming for a long time,” said Rob Rubba, executive chef and partner at Oyster Oyster restaurant in D.C. “Where someone who was previously omnivore like myself, who is seeking depth of flavor in something you might not associate with a vegetable, you can achieve that through fermented foods.”
When asked why fermentation grew so much during the Covid-19 pandemic, Amelia Nielson-Stowell, TFA’s editor, says fermentation touches multiple global food movements. Fermented foods are healthy, natural, green, innovative, artisanal, flavorful and functional.
“Fermentation is not a trend, it’s the oldest food craft, it’s a traditional food art with history in every culture around the world and it’s absolutely having a resurgence here in the U.S.,” Nielsen-Stowell says.
She points out that, while kimchi grew 22% in sales this year, it’s increased market size to 16% of the fermented vegetables category. In 2021, kimchi sales grew 90%, but were only 7% of the fermented vegetables category.
“More brands tuned into kimchi’s popularity, so we’re seeing more market saturation,” Nielsen-Stowell says. “There’s huge opportunities for more Korean fermented foods here in the U.S.”
Kheedim Oh attribute’s part of kimchi’s success to Korean agricultural leaders. Oh, the chief minister of New York-based brand Mama O’s Premium Kimchi, says “We have to give credit to the Korean government and groups like the aT because the Korean government recognizes the soft power of promoting.”
When he began Mama O’s 20 years ago, there were few American-made kimchi companies. Now, “there’s like a new kimchi company everyday. I don’t think it’s going to stop because kimchi is the best food ever, it goes with everything.”
Julie Sproesser agrees. Sproesser, the Interim Executive Director of Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, says she’s seen Korean ingredients and Korean hybrid restaurants across the D.C., Maryland and Virginia areas increase in the last seven years.
“It seems like it’s not an accident and not going anywhere,” she adds.
Today’s Science
During his presentation, Breidt shared an overview on Korean fermented foods, including kimchi, gochujang, ssamjang and doenjang.
Kimchi’s origin begins 11,000 years ago to the start of one of the world’s “first technologies invented” – pottery. Koreans discovered adding veggies with salt and water could preserve food during a time there was no refrigeration.
Scientists are continuing to learn about the significant health benefits of the probiotic-rich, lactic acid bacteria in fermented foods. Breidt says kimchi is especially beneficial because it has 10 million to 1 billion live lactic acid bacteria per gram. Through emerging genomic tools, science is now linking specific lactic acid bacteria strains in fermented foods to health benefits.
There are challenges to selling in the U.S. market, though. Briedt says many Americans like a lightly-fermented kimchi (with a pH in the high 3’s or low 4’s), but once fermentation has begun, it’s hard to stop unless it is refrigerated.
“It’s difficult to get lightly-fermented kimchi that’s imported from somewhere else. You pretty much have to get it locally or near the source of where it’s being produced,” he says, noting because kimchi is a live, fermented product, it doesn’t travel well. “The flavors will change over time, and the evolution of these microbial communities is going to proceed unless you somehow sterilize the product, which is really counter to the whole idea of what excites people about kimchi.”
The environmental factors around fermented vegetables must be meticulously monitored to produce a consistent product. Like the freshness of the ingredients, the correct size of the fermentation vessel, the cut of cabbage and the proper sterilization of cutting machines.
“Having access to high-quality products here I think is really boosting this, and it’s going to keep going as long as we continue those efforts,” Breidt adds.
The 2022 Korean Fermented Food Forum was the first, though it is expected to recur annually, coinciding with Kimchi Day. Jeanie Chang was the moderator of the forum, a licensed clinician who uses Korean dramas as a way to explore mental health through her Instagram, Noona’s Noonchi.
Noma Chefs on Restaurant Innovations
Creativity in a restaurant comes from reinvention. Weeks before the entire Noma staff move to Kyoto, Japan for five months for their latest pop-up, founder René Redzepi and two of Noma’s longtime chefs shared how they stay innovative in the grind of restaurant work.
“As a cook, you go through the seasons each year and it’s the same, it’s not like you’re going to find a new species of birds or the world is going to invent a new animal, you’re going to have to constantly see fresh opportunity in the same winter beats and the same winter onions and so on and so forth,” Redzepi says. “It’s up to us to put the imagination.”
Noma has been awarded multiple times as one of the best restaurants in the world, and earned a third Michelin star last year. Regarded as the pioneer of modern restaurant fermentation, every dish at Noma features something fermented. Noma is regarded as the pioneer of modern gastronomy fermentation, igniting a worldwide movement experimenting with unconventional ferments in the restaurant kitchen to create flavor-packed dishes.
As part of promotion for the new book “Noma 2.0: Vegetable, Forest, Ocean,” authors René Redzepi, Mette Søberg and Junichi Takahashi (both Noma chefs), traveled from Copenhagen to Los Angeles. The book’s title refers to Noma’s three iconic serving seasons. Vegetable in the summer, made with foraged and plant-based items; forest in the fall, when they serve wild game and mushrooms; then ocean in the winter, when seafood is on the menu.
“It provided an outrageous pressure on the team,” he added. “It sounds like nothing, but three times a year coming up with this new way is really, really, really, really hard.”
Redzepi described opening Noma 20 years ago and discovering bright green sea grass that tasted like coriander. It was a pivotal moment.
“That epiphany, that moment where you feel like a child that’s discovered the most amazing thing, those discoveries don’t come that often anymore, I will have to be very very honest, because we’ve just tasted so many things,” Redzepi says. “It’s harder now.”
In the restaurant industry, where pay is low and hours are long, it stifles a chef’s creativity “to be in factory work…it’s simply not worth it.”
But Soberg, head of research and development, said creativity “is really a gift that Rene has given us, because we get to work with these three distinct menus. It’s more about the storyline of the menu.”
She added that she enjoys brainstorming with Noma chefs – a diverse team from all over the world – for the ingredient-driven game and forest season, the more simple seafood where a scallop can shine with umami butter and the complicated vegetable season.
Takashi, a 10 year veteran of Noma, is known as having the most complicated recipes on the staff. The book features one of Takashi’s recipes for cod that is 17 pages long. He said, while working at Noma can be learning techniques, the chefs from different backgrounds all teach each other and share ideas.
“We are also learning from some traditional, international techniques , which is very important for us,” he adds. “I think that’s more important than the fancy stuff, honestly.”
Investing new dishes at Noma can take years of planning. Executing an idea into service “is by far the most complicated part,” Redzepi says. The restaurant spends 10 days before a season opening in a dress rehearsal – then 2 days in testing full serving – finding critical moments – like will a sauce split during serving? Will the weather make the produce taste different?
Intuition, Redzepi says, is a critical skill for a chef to possess and adapt as ingredients change. “You can’t follow the recipes, it’s all in your hands, in your intuition, in your cooking skills. A drop of acidity, a touch of salt. Recipes are guidelines, but the cook will ultimately create the magic.”
- Published in Uncategorized
Fermentation Tops New Year Lists
When The Fermentation Association began tracking industry news five years ago, we put a write-up in our newsletter when fermentation made a food publication’s new year “trend” or “best of” list. Today, as we analyze the 2023 lists, we’re finding it too overwhelming to write a story for each new trend list. Fermentation is dominating 2023.
End-of-year lists often define which foods Americans will be obsessed with in the New Year. Umami-packed fermentation is also at the center of multiple larger trends. Today’s diners are looking for foods that are functional, intensely flavored, international, sustainable, aid gut health and combine sweet and savory.
Christopher Koetke, a global culinary expert and executive chef at Ajinomoto in Chicago, says he thinks there will “be even more of an explosion of fermented products,” reads an article in the Medium.
“As consumers continue to seek out new global flavor profiles, I anticipate 2023 will be the year that umami finally takes center stage,” Koetke says. “I expect to see umami not only in sauces, snack foods, and sandwiches, but branching out into more unexpected uses like desserts and cocktails.”
Interestingly, many of these food publications pointed to McCormick releasing a Miso Caramel Seasoning as evidence fermentation is propelling into the zeitgeist.
Here’s a roundup of fermentation highlights:
“Here is another trend that’s been brewing (fermenting?) for some time. While fermented foods are certainly nothing new, their trendiness has been sneaking in and taking hold of us with things like kimchi and kombucha for the past few years. In 2023, we’re anticipating a bag wave of fermented foods will hit the shelves. This trend ties in deliciously with the “sweets plus” prediction, as many traditionally sweet flavors are expected to fuse with fermented flavors. We’ve begun to see this unusually tasty combination already in products like McCormick’s miso caramel seasoning, which launched just this year.”
- The Manual, “Food Trends That Are About To Take Over 2023”
There’s no doubt that fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha, and tempeh have increased in popularity and what’s not to love about these foods?
They’re a mix of umami and sour flavors that are produced from natural fermentation — this just means they’re made by microorganisms — which yields complex, full flavors.
To get ahead of the trend, McCormick Foods, arguably one of the largest spice companies, has already launched a new blend named Miso Caramel Seasoning. You can even find a recipe for Miso Caramel Oatmeal Whoopie Pies on their website.
It’s possible that Covid-19 has helped boost fermented foods to its top position since these products often contain probiotics which can aid in digestive health, immunity, and overall wellness. Topics that have been on everyone’s mind in recent years amid a global pandemic.
- The Medium, “Flavor scientists predict the biggest trends in foods for 2023”
“I’m going with fermented and the sour and umami flavors produced from it,” says Jan Matsuno, founder of Yumbini Foods and Mindful Food Consulting, when asked to peer into her crystal ball to predict a flavor trend set to make the biggest impact in the coming year. “Think kimchi, miso, beet kvass, pickles, beer, and kombucha.”
This ties in closely to the Sweet Plus trend, playing off the popularity of more complex flavors that often result from the fermentation process. In addition, as Matsuno points out, “fermented ties in squarely with Korean, the hottest ethnic cuisine around, and its use of tangy, spicy fermented vegetables.
“Natural fermentation also often uses probiotics, which are thought to increase gut biodiversity, improving digestive health and overall wellness, clearly desired by many consumers,” continues Matsuno. With COVID-19 spurring many to amp up their wellness initiatives, more consumers are looking to food and beverages to aid in their quest. According to Fuchs North America, fermented ingredients have seen rapid growth in both foodservice and retail, largely due to the perceived health benefits surrounding fermentation, along with a growing acceptance of sour flavors.
“Miso (fermented soybeans, rice, and sometimes other grains) is popping up in trendy online recipes all over,” says Matsuno. “Miso soup and salad dressing have been around for a long time. And the umami flavor of miso is a natural with vegetables, fish, and meats. But what about miso caramel, miso banana bread, or miso buttercream with spice cake?”
- Food Technology Magazine, “Outlook 2023: Flavor Trends”
Pickling and fermenting preparations are having a moment. Not only do these preparations promote ingredient preservation and health connotations but they also allow for unique culinary experimentation. Expect pickling to extend to everything from proteins and french fries to herbs and nuts, while pickled ingredients, themselves, will top unexpected dishes. At the bar, pucker up with sour cocktails containing fermented, gut-healthy ingredients, such as kombucha, miso and sake. Lastly, look to menus to cite more specific preserving processes, such as lacto-fermentation (the use of bacteria to create lactic acid), to provide consumers with a level of scientific transparency.
- Technomic, “What We Foresee for 2023”
“Getting creative and cross-utilizing foods is pertinent to mitigate food waste across the world – and it’s part of our culinary DNA. Our chefs will regularly experiment with banana peels to make plant-based bacon, convert potato peels into chips and garnishes, or even repurpose off cuts and trimmings to make mousses and rillettes, as well as using techniques like pickling, canning, and fermenting to extend product shelf life.” — Ana Esteves, vice president of hotel operations, Lindblad Expeditions
- Food & Wine, “These Will Be the Biggest Travel Trends of 2023, According to Experts”
The “new Nordic” culinary movement spearheaded by Noma in Copenhagen helped cement pickling, preserving, and brining in fine dining, bringing the fermented flavors front and center. Koji, a Japanese product traditionally made from fermenting rice, barley, or soybeans — but it can also be made from other ingredients containing both starch and protein — plays a starring role in many of these restaurants. Koji is best known as the starter for miso, but now different flavor bases, ingredients, and approaches are coming into play as more chefs as well as bartenders are taking to the process as an appreciation for the flavors that come from fermentation is spreading across cultures, cuisines, and service categories.
- Nation’s Restaurant News, “Af&co and Carbonate predict 2023 food & beverage trends”
Fermentation, in general, has soared in popularity over the past few years, and koji is the latest darling on the fermentation scene. Koji is a Japanese seasoning that is made by fermenting rice, barley, or soybeans. It is the starter base for miso, sake, and soy sauce, so clearly, it is an essential staple in Japan. The result of this type of fermentation brings up gorgeous umami flavors that will elevate any meal. So many snacks, dishes, and beverages can benefit from koji.
Takamine Japanese whiskey has an eight-year-old koji spirit. Spirit Almonds have a koji salt almond snack, and amazake is a creamy koji rice drink you can make or buy. There are a plethora of recipes to try that incorporate koji. To get started, you can buy your own starter culture, or buy premade koji by Cold Mountain from MTC Kitchen or Marukome. Then, try your hand at cooking with koji.
- Tasting Table, “17 Food And Beverage Trends To Look For In 2023”
- Published in Business, Food & Flavor
French Baguette Added to Cultural Heritage List
The French baguette is as symbolic of France as the Eiffel Tower. The aromatic, golden, crusty bread has a deep flavor attributed to the long fermentation process.
And now the respected United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Cultural Heritage of Humanity list – which includes other cultural fermented foods and beverages like champagne, kimchi and tequila – includes the French baguette. Specifically, the “artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread.” President of France Emmanuel Macron calls it “250 grams of magic and perfection in our daily lives.”
“The traditional production process entails weighing and mixing the ingredients, kneading, fermentation, dividing, relaxing, manually shaping, second fermentation, marking the dough with shallow cuts (the baker’s signature) and baking,” UNESCO wrote. “Unlike other loaves, the baguette is made with only four ingredients (flour, water, salt and leaven and/or yeast) from which each baker obtains a unique product.”
The baguette is integral to the French way of life. More than six billion are baked every year in France, according to the National Federation of French bakeries.
The traditional baguette is taken seriously in France. It was officially given the name in 1920, a law specifying its minimum weight (80 grams) and maximum length (40 centimeters). An annual competition outside the Notre-Dame cathedral awards the best baguette baker in the country with a yearlong contract to serve the Élysée Palace, where the president lives.
“When a baby cuts his teeth, his parents give him a stump of baguette to chew off,” said Dominique Anract, the president of the National Federation of French Bakeries and Patisseries announced at the French Confederation of Bakers. “When a child grows up, the first errand he runs on his own is to buy a baguette at the bakery.”
The group led the effort to get the baguette on the UNESCO heritage list. The country was considering nominating the baguette, Paris’ gray zinc rooftops or the Biou d’ Arbois wine festival.
The news comes during a tumultuous time for artisanal bread. France is losing 400 artisanal bakeries a year since 1970, from 55,000 (one per 790 residents) to 35,000 today (one per 2,000). It’s been a significant hit to France’s rural areas, as supermarket chains overtake traditional, local bakeries.
French newspaper Le Monde points out that industrial bakeries are also putting mom-and-pop bakers out of business. Many consumers are swapping traditional baguette’s for modern favorites, like sourdough or burgers. Since 2017, sales of burgers in France have exceeded sales of jambon-beurre, the classic French ham baguette and butter sandwich.
After UNESCO’s announcement, the French government announced a Bakehouse Open Day to “enhance the prestige of the artisanal know-how required for the production of baguettes” and support new scholarships and training programs for bakers.
French bakers were skeptical. Parisian bakers told the New York Times after the announcement that their fears of high costs of wheat and flour (due to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine) would not be alleviated by the baguette’s new status.
“This UNESCO recognition is not what will help us get through the winter,” said Pascale Giuseppi, who was behind the counter of her bakery near the Champs-Élysées, serving a lunch rush for baguette sandwiches. “We still have bigger bills to pay.”
Read more (New York Times) & read more (Le Monde)
- Published in Business, Food & Flavor
The Microbes We Should (or Shouldn’t) Be Eating
How important are microbes in the human diet? And does it matter which ones we eat?
“Maybe we’re not too far from proving the following; the dietary guidelines, the My Plate guidelines, should include fermented foods, including those that contain live microorganisms, as part of a healthy diet,” says Bob Hutkins, PhD, a professor at the University of Nebraska (and TFA Advisory Board member). Hutkins explored this hypothesis during his standing-room only presentation at FERMENTATION 2022 titled The Microbes We Should (or Shouldn’t) Be Eating.
He estimates, just like the daily fiber recommendations were granted based primarily on epidemiological studies, fermented foods are going through the same process. And one day there may be a daily fermented food recommendation.
Why Should We Be Eating Live Microbes?
Highly processed foods, prolific use of antibiotics, and overly hygienic environments have resulted in significantly less exposure to microbes. This includes those microbes that help to maintain a healthy gut microbiome and that keep our immune system functioning properly. Indeed, according to the so-called Old Friend’s Hypothesis, exposure to microbes is necessary for proper development of the immune system. This is especially true for Western countries. One highly-cited study published in Lancet found Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs) like Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis — “are predominantly associated with Western populations. You rarely see these diseases in other parts of the world,” Hutkins says.
“In the Covid era, we have certainly learned that preventing infectious diseases remains a major challenge, and being a bit germophobic is understandable. Certainly, modern food technology that includes pasteurization has significantly reduced pathogen risk, improved food safety, enhanced shelf life, and reduced food waste. Nonetheless, our environment has often become too clean, too hygienic and we are no longer exposed to microbes,” he adds.
Another study based on research in Finland found the Old Friend’s Hypothesis holds true for development of allergies, asthma, and eczema. As the authors noted “changes in environment and lifestyle, affecting microbial exposure and immune regulation, seem to play a major role in the so-called post-war allergy epidemic”. Indeed, in a 2002 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, three “old-school” lifestyle approaches were mentioned for protecting against the development of allergies: supplementing with lactobacillus (the bacteria found in fermented foods), owning a dog in your home and attending daycare.
Consuming Live Microbes Benefits Human Health
To address this situation, Hutkins and other food scientists are proposing adding fermented foods to the Recommended Dietary Guidelines, along with the daily dose of nutrients and vitamins.
“One of the main challenges however, will be to distinguish between nutrients and microbes,” Hutkins says.
The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) has explored this further. A panel of ISAPP microbiologists, nutritionists, doctors and statisticians (including Hutkins) used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to deep dive into the American diet. The NHANES database catalogs what adults and children are eating, then collects health indicators for associated diseases.
ISAPP researched the estimated live microbes in foods to find sufficient evidence that a live dietary microbe intake should be a part of a dietary recommendation. It was a big undertaking, since there are 9,388 foods inNHANES. ISAPP ranked each food’s microbial count. They found microbial count was low for processed, heat-processed foods, medium level for fresh fruit and vegetables and high for fermented foods, like fermented dairy (yogurt, fresh cheese) and fermented vegetables.
“Ninety-six percent of the foods we eat are in the low” count for microbes, he said. “Hardly any were in the fermented category, around one percent.”
Still, not all live microbes are the same. The microbes considered healthy – lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria – are only dominant in fermented foods. Most of the live microbes consumed in the average diet are proteobacteria from fresh fruits and vegetables.
The Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences, which catalogs nutrition labels for all USDA food data, now has a space for a brand to enter the amount of live microbes in their product. There’s a dropdown menu to add genus and species of a probiotic strain, too.
“This new effort is a way to introduce the live microbes in the database,” Hutkins says, noting a company would have to enter it voluntarily. “They’re offering a noncompetitive, objective, transparent mechanism for stakeholders to understand live microbe intake and eventually link intake to health outcomes.”
Q&A Julia Skinner, author Our Fermented Lives
As a fermenter with a doctorate in library and information studies, Julia Skinner finds the intersection between fermented foods and history fascinating. That crossroads is where humans evolved with food preservation techniques and created community around fermentation’s flavor.
“I realized there was so much overlap with the ways other cultures were using fermented foods,” Skinner says. “Every culture in the world ferments, so it’s not surprising that we all have come to the same ways to utilize them in our diets over the years. In my research with food history, food is a tool for humans to connect.”
But, in the growing amount of available literature on fermentation, Skinner noticed a hole. Missing was a comprehensive historical overview of fermentation around the globe. She spent years researching and writing on the subject for her new book “Our Fermented Lives.” The 384-page book provides a holistic overview on fermented foods in international cultures.
Skinner’s journey into fermentation began over two decades ago. With an overabundance of produce from her home garden, she turned to fermentation to use her extra fresh vegetables. After leaving a job as a rare book curator in 2018, Skinner “dreamed of working with food” rather than just keeping it a home hobby. It was a roller coaster period of life for Skinner. Within a few months into her job hunt, her mother and grandmother passed away. Unsure of the best career path, her mother’s last words to Skinner encouraged her passion: “Tell people about the food.” Skinner’s business was born, Root Kitchens “a fermentation and food history company that bridges the gap between modern people and historic food.”
Skinner is now a food history consultant and offers fermentation courses and fermentation planners (that she illustrates). A graduate of a fermentation residency program at Sandor Katz’ Tennessee home, Katz encouraged Skinner to add fermentation classes to the Root Kitchens repertoire. Katz wrote the foreword to Skinner’s book.
“I love doing fermentation and incorporating it into my larger food history work,” Skinner says. “The fermentation classes I teach end up being my most popular ones, people are so interested in fermentation.”
Below is a Q&A with Skinner, who spoke with The Fermentation Association about her new book.
The Fermentation Association: In your research for the book, was there any overlap between how different countries ferment that surprised you?
Julia Skinner: One thing I found really interesting, in the chapter on health, I looked into how traditional medical systems use ferments. Each one kind of had different ways that they accounted for fermented foods in our diets because, in a lot of traditional medical systems of course, food is the basis of a lot of treatments and health recommendations, and so a lot of them recommended sourness and the flavor of sourness as a balance for other flavors. When you think about, for example, traditional food pairings like lemon and fish or mustard and pork, those are actually based in humoral theory because the sourness and the heat of the mustard and the lemon balance what was considered the cold, phlegmy properties of the pork and the fish. So you would have a dish that was balanced and wouldn’t go too far one way or the other. You see that with vinegar in dishes too, it’s used in the same way.
In traditional Chinese medicine, there’s also a use of sour foods in the spring as a way to balance your bodies after a winter of richer foods. That surprised me.
TFA: What ferments do you think had the greatest impact on civilization?
JS: I think the best way to think about it is not so much a specific ferment but instead to think about the processes. Alcohol production was a big one, one of the big reasons being that it helped us with water safety. But also in alcohol production, people would take their stale bread and could brew it into something. People could also take their grapes or peaches that were about to go bad and brew them. It helped with food waste, it provided them nutrients and vitamins.
But also bread baking. Both bread and alcohol, when we think about the history of fermentation, are very tied with agriculture. When we have a steady supply of grains – and when we are in one place so we can make things because we’re not moving around all the time – we are able to ferment more food.
And then of course lacto-fermentation, too. It’s how people preserved their vegetables for the winter.
Thinking about all these different ways that we have preserved food and promoted our health and cut down on food waste, fermentation is a good place to think about the specific impacts it had on civilization.
TFA: Humans have been fermenting for centuries. Do you think society has lost some recipes?
JS: Absolutely. The last chapter of the book is called “The Future” because I want us to recognize ourselves as part of a living tradition. I talk about our work in fermentation as being a bridge between these traditions our ancestors had and this knowledge they had, and we now can carry that on to the future and we can add to it. We can be a part of this very living thing which I think is especially appropriate with fermentation since we’re working with living organisms.
One of the things I talk a lot about in that chapter is how documentation of fermentation, fermented foods, has not always been common. It’s just not been widely documented. One of the reasons for that is that these foods were at one point in time very, very common. Fermented food is still very common, all of us eat ferments all the time. But I think home fermentation practices used to be much more common, and so people didn’t think to write down the way their mom versus their grandma versus their aunt made this food because everybody was making it, it was so ubiquitous. Well you jump forward a few generations and then nobody’s making it and now we don’t know how people are making it.
And then there’s the other issue of the fact that the people who were preparing and sharing the knowledge of these traditional foods were often people whose knowledge wasn’t considered worth preserving by the people who had literacy. So women, people who were enslaved, people who were colonized and did not have access to writing and the transmission of knowledge. If your country has been colonized and you don’t speak English or you don’t have access to a printing press, how can you widely communicate in the ways that are accepted by the larger world? That speaks to the importance of doing research and talking to people who are actually in the community rather than just relying on English language resources.
But it also is a reminder that we have a responsibility to document stuff today, please write this stuff down, please share and record what you know and make sure you’re talking with your community members, especially the ones who are unlikely to write these things down so that we actually have a record for the future.
TFA: Any surprising ferment you had not heard of before?
JS: Gundruk, it’s a fermented mustard greens and similar sorts of thick Brassica greens that are salt packed and fermented. It’s a Nepalese ferment.
TFA: You mentioned your fermentation classes at Root Kitchens are your most popular. Why do you find people want to take fermentation classes?
JS: A couple of reasons. One, I think we just see a lot more people that are interested in reconnecting with these traditional methods. People often feel like they’re reliant on store-bought foods and don’t know how to do traditional preparation methods or feel like they’re inaccessible. One of the big tenets behind when I teach something is I try to teach it as low-tech and accessible as possible. Instead of me being like “Go buy all these airlocks,” I teach “Here’s a jar, here’s some vegetables, here’s some salt, we’ll just use that and if you want to use other equipment later, you can.”
I think another part of the reason people like the classes is because they realize how simple and accessible it is. I focus a lot on those traditional methods and that accessibility, but then I also focus on food waste reduction and thinking of how we’re using our scraps. For example, when I make fire cider or any other infused vinegar, I strain out the vinegar when it’s ready and then I save all those scraps and I dehydrate them and I make them into seasoning blends so that I’m not just throwing them in the compost.
TFA: What do you find to be the greatest challenges and opportunities in fermentation education?
JS: Frankly one of the challenges is figuring out how to balance your desire to share knowledge with people with your desire to pay your bills. I think all of us know we love this community, we love sharing, but figuring out how to balance that sharing with the fact that I am working and I need to be paid for that work. One of the ways I’ve done that is I offer scholarships to my classes so that I’m able to bring that knowledge to people who maybe won’t have an opportunity to get it otherwise.
I find it very fun and I find, if somebody’s signing up for a fermentation class, they’re already interested, you don’t really have to get buy-in from people. Even if I’m just talking with people and they learn I’m a fermentation educator, they get really excited about it. It’s clearly something that captures a lot of people’s imaginations.
TFA: You’ve been fermenting for 20 years. Have you seen more interest in fermentation from the general public?
JS: Yes. I remember when I started fermenting food, people knew what fermented foods were. At the time I lived in Iowa and there was a lot of sauerkraut because there is a large German population there. But a lot of people were no longer making it at home or maybe their grandparents did and they were just like “Oh yeah, grandma makes sauerkraut but then like the whole kitchen smells bad for a month.” It’s more popular because of the proliferation of educational opportunities, because of where we’re at culturally and then the proliferation of products, the fermentation product market is just burgeoning, you guys (TFA) points out the data all the time. It’s great because I think it means that fermentation has become a lot less scary to people than it was, which I love to see.
TFA: What do you see as the future of fermentation?
JS: I think we’re in a really interesting period right now because we are at the confluence of this interest in these very traditional methods, like the kind of stuff I teach, and then also at a point where we have more ways in which to do very scientific and precise fermentation and to document and record and share the knowledge we have. We’re at this place where we have these traditional ferments on one hand and then we have folks who are in a lab growing specialty yeast on the other hand. We’ve never been in a historical moment where we’ve had those both happening to this degree. In both cases, now we have network technologies, all of these different ways to record and share what we know. I think the future of fermentation, it’s going to continue to become popular, more popular than it is right now, people are very interested in it.
I think what we’re seeing is that there’s a space in the fermentation world for everybody to fit in. That’s going to be a lot clearer. If you want to just do a home practice like what I do, there’s space for that. If you want to kind of go more into the biotech side, there’s space for that. Or if you want to do something in a restaurant, there’s space for that. There’s a lot of room for people to really find where their niche is within the fermentation community.
- Published in Food & Flavor
“It’s Not a Niche Type of Food”
The modern consumer is not disconnected with fermented foods, they’re disconnected with the fermentation process. In a discussion between fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz and well-renowned epidemiologist Tim Spector, the two experts agree that, if gut health is going to improve, humans need to eat a diet rich in fermented foods.
“The thing that has disappeared from most people’s lives is familiarity with the process of fermentation. And because it has largely disappeared into factories, we imagine that it must require sterile conditions, require a microscope or a knowledge of microbiology,” says Katz, fermentation author and educator. “We project all of our anxiety about the idea of cultivating bacteria onto the process of fermentation, when in fact fermentation is a strategy for safety and people have been doing it with the simplest of facilities without any knowledge of microbiology for literally thousands of years.”
Katz and Spector, professor at King’s College London and author of the book “The Diet Myth,” discussed fermented foods on an episode of the ZOE Science & Nutrition Podcast. Listener questions revolved around safety. Consumers understand fermented foods are good for them, but are still leery about eating live bacteria.
“Fermentation is the hot craze in fancy restaurants across the western world. But these foods make us uneasy,” said Jonathan Wolf, podcast host and CEO of Zoe. “The idea of letting food rot and then eating it goes against everything our parents taught us. …Five years ago, when I started Zoe, I really had no idea what fermentation was. To be honest, fermented foods sounded like something I would have to throw in the trash.”
Wolf asked Katz why even talk about fermentation if it’s a niche. Katz, credited with revitalizing fermentation in the U.S. and Europe, disagreed.
“Every person in every part of the world eats and drinks products of fermentation almost every day. I’m not sure how you could call that a niche type of food,” Katz said, listing off popular fermented foods: bread, cheese, cured meats, condiments, olives, pickles, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, wine and beer. “Foods that are really everyday foods are products of fermentation.”
Most of today’s consumers are victims of what Katz calls the “war on bacteria…the indoctrination that bacteria are our enemies.” Fermentation, though, is an integral part of foodways all over the world. He adds: “Fermentation is an essential part of how people everywhere have been able to make effective use of whatever kinds of food resources are available to them.”
Healing Foods
Fermented foods and beverages are experiencing a popularity boost in part because of the growing health and wellness trend. Ferments have a high amount of nutrients and live microbes, which improve gut health. While there are some cases of proven health benefits of consuming fermented foods, Spector points out fermented foods have not all been fully tested.
Still, there’s enough evidence to indicate we should be eating fermented foods. Korea, Spector says, has one of the healthiest westernized populations. They’re eating an average of 36 kilograms a year per person. That’s an extra probiotic supplement of 20 species, including yeasts and fungi, things you won’t find in a health food store, Spector says.
“It helps your gut microbes (because)…you’re getting the prebiotic and the probiotic. The fertilizer and the seeds both at the same time,” Spector says. “That’s what’s unique about those sorts of types of fermented vegetables that we don’t often talk about. And that’s probably why they potentially have greater health benefits than just the pure microbes on their own. … It’s that double system of both feeding the original contents of your gut microbes, stimulating new ones to grow more of the good guys, and consuming these probiotic microbes that don’t live in humans. Just passing through has a beneficial effect.”
Spector compares those commensal microbes to a rich, American cruise ship passing through a poor, island community. They come in, spend loads of money to dispense through the local economy, then leave.
Live vs. Shelf Stable Products
Though products like bread and sauerkraut are fermented, that doesn’t mean all bread and sauerkraut are fermented. Highly processed, shelf-stable versions kill off the beneficial live microbes.
“There’s been an explosion in the UK of things like kefirs and kombuchas that you can buy in stores, and there’s a suspicion that many of them do not contain live microbes,” Spector says. Brands use ultra-fine filtration systems to get rid of microbes; they pasteurize products to ship it around the country; they add lots of sugars that inhibit the microbes; they make vinegars with such high acidification that it kills the microbes and the mother.
“It’s great to have these products, but I feel they could be exploited,” he adds.
Spector said there’s not a word for a true fermented food yet – he suggested using the term “live fermented food” – so consumers need to read labels at the grocery store. A kefir or kombucha can have between 10-30 varieties of microbes, but you may only be getting only one depending on what brand you buy.
Live ferments will generally be in the refrigerated food section. Heat processed, shelf stable foods are usually on the grocery store shelf.
Katz encourages consumers to steer away from bigger, national brands when purchasing ferments and instead buy from smaller, regional brands who don’t need to process their ferments to ship.
“The more educated you are, the more quality products you can find,” he says, advocating for people to research their food.
He points out the trend of the “lightly fermented soft drinks” can fool consumers, too. These drinks often have a high sugar content with no real benefit to the microbiome, Katz says. Though they can be a great replacement for traditional, sugar-filled sodas, you’re still drinking a lot of sugar.
“Anything sugar-sweetened, you really want to exercise restraint and moderation,” he says.
Katz ended the podcast with his five tips for anyone wanting to try fermented products.
- Don’t be afraid to try it. Katz: “Do not project all of the anxiety you’ve ever had about bacteria onto the process of fermentation. Understand that these are ancient practices that have been tested over time and that they are extremely safe.”
- Understand the conditions. Fermentation is about manipulating the environment for optimal growing conditions. Understand what they are to support lactic acid bacteria and avoid spoilage organisms.
- Don’t overthink it. Accept the simplicity of the fermentation process. Don’t obsess over what could go wrong.
- Experiment. Katz points out there are unlimited variations of fermented food combinations. “Don’t be afrait to play around.”
- Be creative. There are many fermented foods to incorporate in the diet. The hard part for beginners is getting accustomed to them. Try combinations that work for you – kimchi on eggs or pickles in salad dressings, for example.
- Published in Food & Flavor, Health
Shark Tank’s Blunder
Fans are upset after investors on Shark Tank turned down a deal on Mama O’s Premium Kimchi. The exposure, though, netted some big sales for the Brooklyn-based fermentation brand.
Founder Kheedhim Oh and his mom Myung Oh appeared on the show’s 14th season, which aired in October. Oh pitched an investment of $250,000 for 10% equity in the company. But none of the five sharks – four who had surprisingly never tasted kimchi – took the deal. Though kimchi is exploding in popularity in the U.S. (sales increased 90% last year), it illustrates that education is still needed for kimchi to achieve mainstream acceptance in the American market.
“Honestly, I thought they would be more hip to what is actually going on in the world and the wave that fermented foods is having,” Kheedim (a TFA Advisory Board member) said in an interview with TFA. “I was generally just surprised about the lack of general knowledge or interest in fermented foods. The show has made my mission even stronger to help people eat a more Korean diet with kimchi being an important part of it.”
Despite their rejection of the first fermented food to appear on the show, Kheedim said Mama O’s received a nice sales bump from the show. After the show aired, Mama O’s netted four months of business sales in seven days. There was another bump in sales after supermodel Bella Hadid shared on Instagram stories how disappointed she was that the sharks passed on Mama O’s.
“I’m very grateful to Shark Tank because it was a great opportunity to help demystify making kimchi at home using the Mama O’s Homemade Kimchi Kit,” he added.
On the segment, Kheedhim shared his story of beginning the Mama O’s brand with just $50 and a skateboard. Today, Mama O’s sells various kimchi flavors, kimchi paste, kimchi sauce and the make-your-own kimchi kit. Eight years since launching, Kheedim has never used outside investors, always putting his own profits back into the business. Sales were $815,000 in 2021 and will reach an estimated $1 million in 2022. The sharks were impressed with the profits. It costs the company $2.65 a bag to make the kimchi, but it retails for $8.99. The wholesale kits cost $8.25 to make, but sell for $20.
Kheedim – who had to sign an NDA so can’t provide many details about the process – told TFA that he spent months perfecting the pitch, but the live Q&A did not go as smoothly as he wanted. He accidentally handed out his Super Spicy kimchi variety for sampling instead of the classic, milder flavor. He was planning to use the money to hire a production manager, increase broker coverage and fund the brand’s move this month to a larger production space in Queens, New York.
Still, the show has been excellent exposure for Mama O’s. In addition to the sales bump, Mama O’s followers on social media increased and individuals and companies continue to reach out to Kheedim with business opportunities.
During the episode, Kheedim told the sharks how “kimchi is a health food but more importantly it tastes incredible and not just with Korean food either” like hamburgers, hot dogs and mac and cheese.
“What’s makes our kimchi the best is our authentic korean mom recipe,” Kheedim told the sharks.
Kheedim’s mom, Myung, 81, was a fan favorite. She shared how kimchi is an ancient superfood from korea, “naturally fermented and it is full of probiotics.” She also detailed how proud she is of her son, for being an “honest, hardworking entrepreneur who is passionate about kimchi.”
Ultimately, the sharks shared different reasons for not investing. Mark Cuban said he’s concerned Kheedim has been investing his own money back into the company. Lori Greiner says she loves kimchi but found Mama O’s “not investable.” Kevin O’Leary said, though he sees kimchi thriving in the health food space, “the hardest part of this is going to get people to actually try it.” Daymond John admitted he wasn’t “obsessed” with kimchi. Kendra Scott said she didn’t know what kimchi was.
Fans were not pleased. They took to social media to voice their opinion.
“Many entrepreneurs come and go, but only some define the season. What a positive spirit to the pitch. Wishing you all the success.” @umang.thareja
“You should have got the money. They are fools!” @lifebettergreen
“Sharks made a HUGE mistake by not investing. More people in America just need education on kimchi. You guys are going to kill it. Mama O was amazing.” @s.andersn
The day after airing, Kheedim made an Instagram post with the Anthony Bourdain quote: “Americans want kimchi. They want it on their hamburgers. It’s like when Americans started eating sushi. A huge tectonic shift. That funk. That corruption of the flesh. That’s exactly the flavor zone that we are all heading towards.”
Of note: in 2018 during the show’s second season, the sharks did invest in the Kombucha Shop, a DIY kombucha-making kit.
- Published in Business, Food & Flavor
Educating Consumers About Fermentation
Fermentation continues to top food trend lists, health movements and restaurant menus, influencing more curious consumers to buy fermented foods. But the average consumer remains fermentation clueless.
“Fermentation is a really complicated subject and we’re just reaching the tip of the iceberg at this point when it comes to the research,” says Jenna Mills, account manager at Eat Well Global, a food and nutrition consulting agency. “A complicated subject like this is loaded and I feel that individuals and consumer know just enough to be confused.”
Five food professionals shared their thoughts on how to educate consumers about fermentation during a panel at FERMENTATION 2022. Panelists included: Mills, Shannon Coleman (associate professor and state extension specialist at Iowa State University), Matt Lancor (CEO and founder of Kombuchade), and Kirsten Shockey (author, educator and co-founder of The Fermentation School and TFA Advisory Board member). Amelia Nielson-Stowell, editor at The Fermentation Association, moderated.
Simple Messaging
The panelists agreed fermentation brands need to stop overcomplicating fermentation to the consumer, focusing on simple communication strategies.
“I compare it to a small child asking where babies come from – a simple answer is enough,” says Shockey. “With fermentation, often, we’re ready to say that lactic acid bacteria come in and they’re eating carbohydrates and there are these metabolites and flavors involved. We’re ready to share all the details – and we’re met with a blank stare. People just often want to know what’s the difference between a pickle and a ferment.”
Shockey, who teaches at the women-run Fermentation School, says she’s felt pressure over the years to innovate her classes and teach new subjects. But, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic when more consumers focused on health and turned to fermentation, her most popular classes are still the basic fermentation 101.
In a TFA survey last year, 70% of fermentation producers said a greater understanding of fermentation and familiarity with the flavors associated with fermentation would foster increased consumption of fermented foods.
Kombuchade is taking a unique approach to that education component, focusing on kombucha as a recovery drink.
“I’m looking to make probiotics cool for athletes, much like Gatorade made electrolytes cool for athletes,” Lancor says. The science of food is typically a mechanical process: eat fats, carbohydrates and proteins for optimal energy and performance. “There’s actually a microbial fermentation process that’s helping to rebuild your muscles.”
Kombucha marketing is geared toward a yoga, enlightenment crowd, Lancor adds, only reaching a certain number of consumers. It doesn’t resonate with all consumers.
“The south side of Chicago guys that play on my rugby team, they were never going to grab that kombucha bottle off the shelf with that kind of messaging,” he says. “There wasn’t this message of probiotics can be used for performance or recovery or even understanding kombucha’s place within an athlete’s regimen.”
Communicating Science & Tradition
Fermented food brands are tasked with bridging the gap between science and consumer.
Consumers keep informed about food and nutrition trends through professional associations (69%), academic (67%) and dietitians and nutritionists (62%), according to a consumer insights survey by Eat Well Global.
For 77% of consumers, the advice of dietitians and nutritionists impacts which foods they buy. Mills says healthcare professionals offer that counseling on how to incorporate fermented foods into the diet.
Don’t forget the ancestral wisdom, Shockey points out.
“My one liner is we’ve evolved with these foods and you are here because your ancestors successfully fermented,” she says. Rather than educating that people should eat a tablespoon of sauerkraut a day to meet nutrition needs, “try to bring it into your world naturally.” Eat a mixture of ferments, with yogurt at breakfast or hot sauce at lunch and kimchi at dinner.
“We cannot put ferments into this box that must be eaten raw. That to me is a barrier. You should eat this in any way that feels right to you,” she says, adding ferments were traditionally eaten cooked in soups and stews. “But in our minds right now is the idea that we have to eat our probiotics raw. These foods have so many metabolites that are being created in production and they follow through in the cooking process.”
Challenges to Starting a Brand
Starting a fermentation brand can be an overwhelming task. Sandor Katz, fermentation author and educator, said in his keynote address at the FERMENTATION 2022 conference that education is a huge challenge for people launching new fermented products.
“They often end up putting a lot of their energy into educating consumers,” he says.
Coleman says state extension offices are an underutilized resource for new producers. Her office got into food preservation after noticing many Pinterest recipes that gave poor advice on food safety.
“Just about every extension program has some form of food preservation type of program that they are delivering to consumers and they want to help,” Coleman adds.
There are no universal standards for labeling, an obstacle for new producers.
“Labeling is such a sensitive issue because you can get into big trouble with the FDA,” Nielson-Stowell says, pointing out the U.S. Food & Drug Administration only has 12 approved health claims a brand can put on a label. “It also gets tricky putting ‘probiotic,’ ‘prebiotic’ or ‘postbiotic’ on a label. It’s not regulated and confusing to consumers.”
The International Scientific Association of Probiotics & Prebiotics (ISAPP) is pushing for -biotics to be a more protected term. According to ISAPP, only fermented food brands with a scientifically measured -biotic should but it in a label. Their health benefits must be documented. For example, yogurts often have defined probiotic strains on their labels.
Nielsen-Stowell recommends using “live cultures,” “live microbes” or “naturally fermented” instead. And make sure retailers know what that means.
“If you’re getting your set in store with a retailer, the retailer will be your biggest advocate. The retailer is going to be the one talking to the customers more than you. Educate them. Do they know why your product is better than your competitor’s product?” she adds.
Lawsuit Alleges Kombucha Exceeds Alcohol Limit
Four consumers — three underage — filed a lawsuit alleging Tribucha Inc. misled them into buying non-alcoholic kombucha that contains twice the alcohol permitted for non-alcoholic beverages.
The 30-page class action lawsuit contends Tribucha has been sold to “unsuspecting children, pregnant women, persons suffering with alcohol dependence issues, and a host of other people for whom alcoholic consumption may pose a grave and immediate safety and/or health risk.” The lawsuit says the North Carolina-based brand has a small disclaimer on the label stating that Tribucha “contains a trace amount of alcohol,” but an investigation proved otherwise. Plaintiffs used a lab accredited by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to test the kombucha and found it is over 0.5% alcohol by volume, which classifies it as alcoholic.
The complaint continues: “Because Tribucha Kombucha does not include any warnings concerning the significant presence of alcohol, consumers, including Plaintiffs, are led to believe that the products are safe to consume when driving a car, operating machinery, and taking with potentially a deadly cocktail of incompatible medications.”
In 2010, Whole Foods and other retailers pulled kombucha off shelves as the TTB investigated whether alcohol levels in kombucha were higher than what was printed on the label. And since then, consumers — and even other brands — have filed lawsuits against various kombucha brands, alleging alcohol levels higher than indicated.
Kombucha can keep fermenting after it’s made, as the yeasts continue to eat sugars. Under current law, if kombucha leaves a processing facility at 0.4% ABV, but increases to over 0.5% by the time it’s placed on grocery store shelves, the brewer would have to pay federal alcohol taxes like a beer brand.
Kombucha producers fear constant repercussions from this law, says Hannah Crum, co-founder and president of Kombucha Brewers International (KBI), the trade organization for kombucha brewers.
Earlier this year, South Carolina’s Department of Revenue (DOR) categorized all kombuchas as alcoholic beverages. The state’s regulations set a maximum alcohol content for beverages but no minimum, so any fermented beverage with any alcohol content would be considered alcoholic. Since kombucha fermentation produces a trace amount of alcohol, a brewer would need to apply for a state alcohol license, and kombucha could not be sold to anyone under the age of 21. It contradicted the U.S. legal definition of an alcoholic beverage.
After kombucha industry leaders contacted the state’s DOR and the South Carolina Retail Association (SCRA) to share advice and resources, the regulation was amended to exempt kombucha. KBI’s leadership and legal counsel, along with producers Buchi Kombucha, GT’s Synergy Kombucha, Health Ade, Humm and Brew Dr. were involved.
Pending in Congress is the KOMBUCHA Act, legislation that would make kombucha beverages exempt from excise taxes intended for alcoholic beverages. The act proposes to raise the alcohol by volume (ABV) threshold for kombucha from its current level of 0.5% to 1.25%.
Reads a statement from KBI on the act: “These laws were never intended to make kombucha subject to taxes designated for beer. Passing the KOMBUCHA Act under the next appropriations bill will relieve this unnecessary burden on kombucha brewers. Only kombucha above that level (1.25%) will be subject to federal excise taxes when this Act becomes law.”
KBI has actively lobbied for the bill’s passage. Big kombucha brands (GT’s and Health-Ade) have actively supported the bill.
- Published in Business