Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolation from Üçburun Peppers and Comparison of the Different Production Process for Pickled Pepper

Abstract

In recent years, the number of conscious consumers who care about accessing safe food has increased, and this has brought about an increased interest in pickle products that do not contain preservatives and are obtained by natural fermentation. With the negative effects of food additives on health coming to the forefront, the search for new and natural methodologies in pickle production processes has begun. For this purpose, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which is the most common bacteria in pickle fermentation and a normal microbiota member of fresh peppers, is used for natural fermentation studies in pickle production. In this context, this study aimed to sample Üçburun pepper (Capsicum annuum var. annuum L., “Golden Greek”) for LAB isolation and to compare two different pickle production techniques within the scope of industrial processing. Accordingly, sampling was performed from two different sampling points for LAB isolation. The phenotypic and biochemical characteristics of the obtained isolates were determined. Kit-based identification of 10 isolates that were determined to exhibit different profiles was carried out using the API 50CH kit. To obtain additive-free pickled peppers on an industrial scale, two different pickle production processes (fermentation and acidification methods) were applied. According to the analysis results and the differences in the production stages of stock pickles, it has been seen that the pickles obtained by the acidification method are more suitable for pickle industry production.