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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Food. Sci. Technol.
Sec. Food Safety and Quality Control
Volume 4 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frfst.2024.1490547
This article is part of the Research Topic Fermentation of Foods and Beverages: Current Insights and Perspectives View all articles

Fermentation of the sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) -exploring the potential of the kelp's native microbiota as starter culture and the microbiological food safety of fermented products

Provisionally accepted
Pierrick Stévant Pierrick Stévant 1*Evangelia Zioga Evangelia Zioga 2,3Jonas Steenholdt Sørensen Jonas Steenholdt Sørensen 2Claus Heiner Bang-Berthelsen Claus Heiner Bang-Berthelsen 2Thomas Hagby Dahl Thomas Hagby Dahl 1Trygg Barnung Trygg Barnung 1Malin Kleppe Malin Kleppe 4Trond Løvdal Trond Løvdal 5
  • 1 Møreforsking AS, Ålesund, Norway
  • 2 National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark
  • 3 Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 4 Lerøy Seafood Group ASA, Bergen, Norway
  • 5 Department of Processing Technology, Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Nofima), Stavanger, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigated the use of native microbiota from the sugar kelp Saccharina latissima, in the form of fermented kelp fluid (FKF) from a spontaneous anaerobic fermentation process, as a starter culture (SC) for the fermentation of freshly harvested biomass of the same species. Rapid (< 48 h) acidification (pH < 4.3) was achieved for S. latissima inoculated with FKF, at a fermentation temperature of 21 °C. Kelp inoculated with a commercial strain of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (Lp, positive control) reached a similar pH level after 5 days, while kelp with no SC (negative control) did not reach a pH level below 4.3 within nine days. The microbiota of the FKF-SC as well as the FKFinoculated S. latissima samples was dominated by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) identified as L. plantarum.The SC in these samples successfully converted mannitol into lactic acid as the main fermentation product. In contrast, a higher production of acetic acid and ethanol was measured in the negative control samples compared to other groups reflecting a different microbial profile including marine bacteria which could not be identified by MALDI-TOF biotyping. Challenge trials of S. latissima samples from experimental and commercial fermentation processes with Bacillus cereus did not result in the growth of this food pathogen, even at pH levels within viable range for this species (pH > 4.3). These preliminary results provide a foundation for further isolation of suitable SCs for kelp fermentation in commercial production and for assessing the food safety of fermented kelp.

    Keywords: processing, preservation, Seaweed, macroalgae, Lactic acid bacteria, Challenge test

    Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 22 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Stévant, Zioga, Steenholdt Sørensen, Heiner Bang-Berthelsen, Dahl, Barnung, Kleppe and Løvdal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pierrick Stévant, Møreforsking AS, Ålesund, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.