Kimchi Probiotic Counts by Fermentation Stage
Whether store-bought kimchi is still alive, and whether a jar fermented in the fridge ends up with fewer lactic acid bacteria than one left on the counter, are two questions with published counts behind them. Four papers are collected below, each one with its temperature, its duration and its sample attached. None of these studies measures "probiotics" in any regulated sense, and none of them follows the bacteria past the plate. The unit throughout is the colony-forming unit, one cell alive enough at sampling to grow into a visible colony. From under-ripe to properly sour The World Institute of Kimchi keeps a public explainer page on kimchi lactic acid bacteria , posted 17 May 2024. It puts the early, under-ripe stage at about 100,000 lactic acid bacteria per gram of kimchi, with acidity below 0.3%, and 적숙기 (jeoksukgi), the properly ripened stage, at more than 100 million per gram, with acidity running 0.3–0.8%. A thousandfold difference separates the two stages, and the ...