How Chefs and Scientists Are Using Kombucha and Kimchi to Study Microbiology
upstart writes:
How Chefs and Scientists Are Using Kombucha and Kimchi to Study Microbiology:
Scientists and chefs have collaborated on a new study that demonstrates how fermented foods can be used to drive participatory science projects that both engage the public and advance our understanding of microbial ecology. The study focused on working with food experts and the public to examine the microbial communities associated with kombucha, kimchi and chow chow.
"One of the things we demonstrated here is that this approach works, it's relatively inexpensive, and it is easy to scale," says Erin McKenney, co-lead author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University.
"This proof-of-concept study focused on questions that have been answered using conventional approaches, allowing us to determine that the findings from our approach are consistent with established findings," McKenney says. "But now that we have that proof of concept, we can begin using this technique to address additional questions."
For the study, the researchers hosted three participatory science workshops at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in which scientists and chefs instructed K-12 teachers and members of the public on how to make fermented foods. Each workshop focused on a specific fermented food: kimchi, chow chow and kombucha.
While workshop participation varied, the researchers ended up with 18-23 samples of each fermented product.
Liquid samples were taken from each of the fermented foods at different points, to see how the microbial communities in each sample changed as the fermentation progressed. Samples were taken from chow chow and kimchi on days 3 and 10; kombucha samples were taken on days 4 and 8.
The researchers conducted DNA sequencing of each sample to get a snapshot of both the diversity and overall abundance of microbes in the sample.
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