ABSTRACT
Temperature is a critical factor for vegetable fermentation. It does affect the acidification rate and promotes the growth of single microbial species. Different lactic acid bacteria can tolerate different temperatures, which provide an enormous scope for a range of lactic fermentations. While most bacteria have a temperature optimum of between 20 to 30° C, there are some (the thermophiles) which prefer higher temperatures (50 to 55° C) and those with colder temperature optima (15 to 20° C). Most lactic acid bacteria work best at temperatures of 18 to 22° C. The Leuconostoc species which initiate fermentation have an optimum of 18 to 22° C. Temperatures above 22° C, favor the Lactobacillus species (Battcock and Azam-Ali, 2001).
