Document Type : Original Paper

Authors

• Tran Thien Hien ^{1, 2}
• Thanh Tran Truc ^{3, 4}
• Nguyen Van Muoi ⁵

¹ MSc. Graduate, Faculty of Food and Environmental Engineering, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam

² MSc. Graduate, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam

³ Associate Professor, College of Agriculture, Can Tho University, Can Tho City 94000, Vietnam

⁴ Associate Professor, School of Graduate, Can Tho University, Can Tho City 94000, Vietnam

⁵ Professor, College of Agriculture, Can Tho University, Can Tho City 94000, Vietnam

Abstract

Vegetables have been shown to be able to provide nutrients, including vitamins, minerals and especially fiber, and release toxins that arise during the digestion of food. As a result, the importance of vegetables has been increasingly emphasized in the human diet. In this study, Kohlrabi, a vitamin C-rich vegetable, was used for lactic fermentation. The whole process was optimized by varying a wide range of parameters including concentrations of salt solution and pH value on the growth of lactic acid bacteria, product texture and sensory characteristics. Current results revealed the optimal conditions for the fermentation process are as follows: NaCl solution used of 3.5%, initial pH 4.2, and MnCl₂ with a concentration of 30 mM. The obtained Kohlrabi pickle products exhibited acceptable quality and good sensory scores after 2 days. Elevated temperature was also found to be associated with loss of hardness, quality loss and longer fermentation time. Optimized Kohlrabi pickling process will contribute to diversifying pickled vegetable products to avoid the defects caused by improper processing.

Keywords

• Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea L.)
• Lactic fermentation
• Salt content
• Vitamin C