What happens when you ‘ferment’ food and how does it help with preservation?
In: Chemistry
Certain types of bacteria and yeast can happily live in places that most can’t. They do this by changing the environment (like making it more acid or basic) to a point where other organisms can’t live, but they can. This prevents things from rotting since the organisms that cause the rot can’t survive.
If you can get these organisms onto a food, they can change the environment. They will continue to grow and reproduce until the food gets to the point that even they can’t live there anymore. This has the effect of preserving the food since it may now last for years before actually going bad–few things can now live there and spoil the food.
As an added benefit, the organisms can help bring out nutrients that we can’t get easily from the food through digestion. This can make some foods more nutritious after fermentation.
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