User:Ajw282/Fermentation in food processing

Health Benefits
Though the production and consumption of fermented foods is associated with some risks (as mentioned above), it has also been shown to have many beneficial effects on human health. For instance, fermented dairy products have been shown to have numerous health benefits including the reduction of blood pressure, the reduction of cholesterol, and the reduction of cancer risk. Fermented fruits and vegetables can also come with many benefits. Kimchi – a traditional Korean dish created by fermenting cabbage with some other accompanying vegetables and seasonings – has been shown to have a slew of benefits on human health related to cancer, heart disease, the immune system, inflammation, glucose metabolism, gut health, and more.

These benefits are conferred upon the consumer of fermented foods for a few different reasons. One of these reasons is that the makeup of the substrate for the fermentation is changed by the process of fermentation (and these changes sometimes make the foods more beneficial to human health) – an example of this is that cheese is edible for the lactose-intolerant because the bacteria involved in fermentation consume some of the lactose that was present in the original milk. Another reason that fermented foods are healthy for humans is that they are a vehicle for probiotics to get into the gut. Many Lactic Acid Bacteria, which are commonly utilized in the production of fermented foods, are recognized as probiotics.

Environmental Benefits
Much of the “waste product” from food production winds up sitting inert in typical garbage processing facilities. This “waste product”, though, is sometimes rich in nutrients and flavorings which can be extracted via fermentation. The reuse of this “waste product” could have huge implications on the environmental impact of food production, which is substantial. Food production is disproportionately responsible for many environmental challenges like climate change and loss of biodiversity; if we could utilize the “waste product” that this process generates instead of letting it sit in landfills or burning it in incinerators, we could mitigate some of the impact of food production on the environment. One such example of an efficient use of waste product is the use of plant or dairy waste products as growing media for Single-Cell Oils (SCOs). SCOs are microbes which can produce long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid like EPA, DHA, and DPA that play a critical role in human health; growing SCOs on waste products to produce these acids would allow us to avoid relying on oil crops or over-fishing in order to keep up with demand for them.