Abstract
Fermentation is an ancient technique for preserving food and feed, and for moderating taste and texture of foods. Fermentation of seaweeds for generating novel food products has yet only been described for few red algae. Here, sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) was heat-treated and fermented using lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Taste, smell and texture of the fermented product was compared to fresh sugar kelp and two commercial seaweed products (nori and wakame). Tissue contents of dry matter, nitrogen, mannitol, and selected minerals and trace metals of the fresh and fermented sugar kelp were quantified and compared. In the fermentation process, the pH was reduced to 4.5 within 40 h, with LAB counts increasing 100-fold and no Bacillus cereus present. Heat-treatment and fermentation caused a reduced saltiness and umami flavour of the sugar kelp, a less slimy visual appearance and a reduced smell of sea, whereas the texture and protein content was unchanged compared to the fresh sugar kelp. The fermented sugar kelp had a stronger bite than nori and wakame, a stronger smell of sea and a more salty, irony and umami rich taste than nori, but less umami and salt taste than wakame. The fermentation process reduced the contents of sodium (− 15%), cadmium (− 35%) and mercury (− 37%) in the sugar kelp. LAB fermentation of sugar kelp showed promising for broadening the food market for seaweeds as the fermented product had a milder taste, improved visual impression and smell, and a reduced content of harmful trace metals.
Highlights
Fermentation is an ancient and widely used method for preservation of perishable foods, i.e. milk, cereals, meat and vegetables, hereby producing new foods or beverages
During the first 48 h of fermentation the total count of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) increased by a factor of 100 from 106 to 108 colony forming units (CFU) mL−1 (Fig. 1b)
Smell and visual appearance of the fresh sugar kelp to the treated sugar kelp, the heat-treatment caused a significant decrease in the taste components of salt and umami, and resulted in a pH Density of lactic acid bacteria
Summary
Fermentation is an ancient and widely used method for preservation of perishable foods, i.e. milk, cereals, meat and vegetables, hereby producing new foods or beverages. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are the most commonly used and characterised microorga- nisms (Caplice and Fitzgerald 1999). Lactic acid fermentation improves the shelf life and food safety of the end-product and alters the nutritional and sensory properties of the product (Caplice and Fitzgerald 1999; Karovicova and Kohajdova 2005) and promotes health benefits through increasing the content of probiotic bacteria (Gupta and Abu-Ghannam 2012). 30.1 million wet tonnes of seaweeds are produced annually (2016), representing a value of 11.7 billion US $ (FAO 2018). More than 99% of this is produced in Asia (FAO 2016); the cultivation of seaweeds for
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