My ferment PhD
Have you ever thought of an interesting idea or concept that, once you have had it, you can’t let it go? Life happens, other demands are made upon you, and even though there are not enough hours in the day, you keep at it? That is fermentceutical™ for me.
Fermented vegetables represent an important focus for research into prevention and amelioration of chronic disease, particularly in light of our growing understanding about the role of gut microbiota in health. Fermented vegetables are tasty, easy to make, cheap and safe, as well as being a fantastic food preservation method. They have enhanced functional and nutritional properties due to the plant nutrients, biochemicals, microbial metabolites and the microbial cell components present in them. Despite all this, and despite ever-increasing media coverage, their consumption remains niche.
A vital, exciting and novel area of research
Drying and powdering ripe lacto-fermented vegetables and then using them as a condiment or ingredient is a longstanding practice of fermenters. It is an area of fermented foods that I have been exploring for more than 5 years, now. Two key factors mean, in my mind, this is a vital, exciting and novel area of research. Firstly, live fermenting microbes produce carbon dioxide. This is easily managed when ferments are made in a home setting, but presents a real challenge in commercial production, storage and distribution, where leakage, spillage and even jar explosions are possible.
Secondly, increasing research into postbiotics (defined as a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host) indicates that microbes may not need to be alive to benefit health. Inevitably, a significant proportion of microbes are inactivated as a ferment is dried. If the drying process does not significantly affect the ferment’s ability to benefit health, whilst also making it product, shelf and transport stable, then dried ferments hold real potential as food products worth investigation.
Fermentceutical
Around 5 years ago, I had a strange dream about a new word - fermentceutical. With no idea where it might lead, and because my experiments with drying ferments and using the powders continued to absorb and inspire me (and possibly because I used to be a solicitor), I trademarked the term. It basically defines lacto-fermented foods that are dried, with the resulting product intended to have a health benefit. At the time, I was just embarking upon an MSc in nutritional medicine at University of Surrey. The project module of my MSc constituted a grant proposal for research into a kimchi fermentceutical and in May 2022, my colleague and friend Katy Gordon-Smith and I self-funded and conducted the first phase of research.
This unshakeable idea of mine has now become the focus of a PhD, supervised by Terri Grassby and Kourosh Ahmadi at University of Surrey and Harsh Mathur and John Leech at TEAGASC. I am nearing completion of write-up of the first research paper, which constitutes a comparative assessment of specified nutrients and biochemicals in kimchi before and after freeze drying and powdering.
Follow my work
You can read the research that I produced for Nutrition Society congress 2024 here.
I hope to finalise the full research paper for publication shortly.
I will provide updates here and through my newsletter as my research progresses, so do sign up to the newsletter below to hear more about what I consider to be an exciting and enlivening area of scientific enquiry. If you have comments or questions, please do contact me.
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