ABSTRACT
Humans have consumed fermented cucumber products since before the dawn of civilization. The earliest record of fermentation dates before 6000 BC in the Fertile Crescent (Demarigny 2012). There is fossil evidence that fruits and vegetables were undergoing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation before mankind inhabited the earth (Schopf and Packer 1987). Through time, human populations have developed these processes to create different products and prolong the shelf-life of highly perishable vegetables, such as cucumbers, thereby increasing food security. Almost every culture around the globe include specific fermented foods in their dietary customs and traditions. Fermented cucumbers are turned into a product called jiang-gua in Taiwan, khalpi in Nepal and India, paocai in China, oiji in Korea and are referred to as pickles in many parts of the United States, Europe, and Canada (Das and Deka 2012, Di Cagno et al. 2013, Kumar et al. 2013, Tamang 2010, Jung 2012). Most cucumbers are fermented in a salt solution. But to make khalpi, cucumbers are cut into pieces, sun dried for two days, put into bamboo vessels and left to
ferment at room temperature for three to seven days. While hundreds of different commercial vegetable fermentation processes are practiced across the globe, cucumbers, cabbage and table olives are currently the most economically relevant commodities. With an increasing world population, lactic acid fermentation is expected to play an increasingly important role in preserving fresh fruits and vegetables. According to Steinkraus (1994), fermentation plays the following five key roles in modern society: 1) preservation of substantial amounts of otherwise perishable products; 2) biological enhancement of the raw materials with protein, vitamins, essential amino acids and fatty acids; 3) enrichment of human diets through improved texture, appearance, flavor and aromas; 4) decreased energy requirements for preservation; and 5) cottage industry opportunities. Cucumbers are fermented as an economical means of storage in a well-preserved state between harvests, making them available for processing into finished products year round. Cucumber plants take only a couple of months to reach maturity and can produce many fruits. The mature fruits, which can be picked in various sizes, are composed of 95 per cent water and contain about 2.5 per cent sugar. The plants can produce high yields on different soils and complement crop rotations. In small plots, the plants can be grown on trellises to increase the yield per area. The production statistics for the top five cucumber-growing nations are given in Table 1. China has produced the largest amount of cucumbers for the past 50 years, nearly 25 times that of Turkey, the second top producer.
