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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1433127
This article is part of the Research Topic Microorganisms in Tea and Tea Beverages View all articles

Paper submitted to Frontiers in Microbiology Nature of back slopping kombucha fermentation process: Insights from the microbial succession, metabolites composition changes and their correlations

Provisionally accepted
Ting Liao Ting Liao 1xiangru li xiangru li 1Fan Li Fan Li 1Bo Zhang Bo Zhang 1Wei-Ming Zheng Wei-Ming Zheng 1Jia-Jia Hua Jia-Jia Hua 1Li Li Li Li 1Norlia Mahror Norlia Mahror 2Lai Hoong Cheng Lai Hoong Cheng 2*
  • 1 Wuyi University, Wuyishan, Fujian Province, China
  • 2 University of Science Malaysia (USM), Penang, Penang, Malaysia

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

    Kombucha, a fermented tea prepared with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY), offers a unique and unpredictable home-brewed fermentation process. Therefore, the need for a controlled kombucha fermentation process has become evident, which requiring a thorough understanding of the microbial composition and its relationship with the metabolites produced. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of microbial communities and metabolites over a 12-day fermentation period of a conventional kombucha-making process. Our findings revealed similarities between the microbial communities in the early (0-2 days) and late (10-12 days) fermentation periods, supporting the principle of backslopping fermentation. Untargeted metabolite analysis unveiled the presence of harmful biogenic amines in the produced kombucha, with concentrations increasing progressively throughout fermentation, albeit showing relatively lower abundance on days 8 and 12.Additionally, a contrasting trend between ethanol and caffeine content was observed.Canonical correspondence analysis highlighted strong positive correlations between specific bacterial/yeast strains and identified metabolites. In conclusion, our study sheds light on the microbial and metabolite dynamics of kombucha fermentation, emphasizing the importance of microbial control and quality assurance measures in the production process.

    Keywords: Clean fermentation, Symbiosis, Kombucha, Microbial identification, Metabolome

    Received: 15 May 2024; Accepted: 24 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liao, li, Li, Zhang, Zheng, Hua, Li, Mahror and Cheng. 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: Lai Hoong Cheng, University of Science Malaysia (USM), Penang, 11800, Penang, Malaysia

    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.