This study evaluated the physicochemical and microbial quality characteristic of seasonal commercial kimchi for hygienic safety levels. The pH of seasonal commercial kimchi was 3.84-6.36 and the titratable acidity and salinity of the samples were 0.21-1.16 and 1.19-1.54%, respectively. The content of nitrate and nitrite in the commercial kimchi were lower in the spring and summer, which was affected by acidic condition of the kimchi depending on fermentation. Heavy metal contents in commercial kimchi are not an issue because they were detected only at very low levels. The total aerobic bacteria and coliforms counts ranged from 5.25 to 8.44 Log CFU/g and 0.00 to 5.08 Log CFU/g, respectively. The total aerobic bacteria and coliforms were detected more in summer than in the other seasons. E. coli was detected in three of the samples tested. Food-borne pathogens were not detected in any of the samples except for B. cereus. B. cereus was detected in the fall in more than 70% of samples. These results suggest that commercial kimchi distributed in the fall maintain the quality properties and the microbiological safety of kimchi compared to the other seasons. Therefore, further studies as an effective distribution system for the particular seasons will be needed to guarantee the hygienic safety levels of commercial kimchi required by the consumers.

This study aimed to evaluate the characteristic differential between whole cabbage kimchi (pogi kimchi) and sliced cabbage kimchi (mat kimchi) during kimchi fermentation at 6oC. The difference of microbial and physicochemical properties was investigated until 6 weeks. For the changes in the microbial flora, both kimchi samples exhibited a continuous increase in total aerobic bacteria and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) population size up to 2 weeks followed by a stationary phase until 5 weeks. Interestingly, the number of LAB of mat kimchi was overall higher than that of pogi kimchi during kimchi fermentation. We speculate that mat kimchi has in a more advantageous growth condition than pogi kimchi for microbial growth because small kimchi cabbage size appropriately derives nutritional supply in order to increase the LAB growth. During lactic fermentation at 6oC, physicochemical changes in the pH, salinity, and titratable acidity was observed to be no significant differences between two types of kimchi. Furthermore the contents of organic acids such as oxalic acid, citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, fumaric acid, and acetic acid was not significantly different (p>0.05) between both kimchi samples as well as the contents of total free amino acid.

This review summarizes the studies on a wide variety of yeast found in kimchi and the effects of yeast on kimchi fermentation, and discusses the direction for further research. Yeast belongs to the genera Trichosporon, Saccharomyces, Sporisorium, Pichia, Lodderomyces, Kluyveromyces, Candida, Debaryomyces, Geotrichum, Kazachstania, Brassica, Yarrowia, Hanseniaspora, Brettanomyces, Citeromyces, Rhodotorula, and Torulopsis have been identified using culturedependent methods and metagenomics analysis. The application of yeast as a starter into kimchi has resulted in an extension of shelf life and improvement of sensory characteristics due to a decrease in the amount of lactic acid. On the other hand, some yeast cause kimchi spoilage, which typically appears as an off-odor, texture-softening, and white-colony or white-film formation on the surface of kimchi. In contrast to lactic acid bacteria, there are limited reports on yeast isolated from kimchi. In addition, it is unclear how yeast affects the fermentation of kimchi and the mechanism by which white colony forming yeast predominate in the later stage of kimchi fermentation. Therefore, more research will be needed to solve these issues.

This study aims to establish a strategy for selling kimchi to satisfy the needs and wants of European consumers through survey, FGI, and IDI. All survey participants were Europeans and were selected on the basis of their kimchi awareness. For the quantitative survey, 246 participants 15 years or older were selected; for FGI, 33 participants aged between 20 and 49 were selected; and for IDI, eight chefs were selected. The survey included four steps of ‘Awareness-First try-Needs-Future consumption’. The participants got to know kimchi through the Internet; for example, by visiting Korea and Hallyu, and suggested positive comments, including ‘fancy’ and ‘exotic.’ While satisfaction with kimchi sharply decreased due to taste and appearance in the first try of kimchi, it is important to provide the best first-try experience. It also showed that important needs for kimchi are ‘hot sensation’ , ‘crunchiness’ and ‘presentation’. They gave a negative answer to combination with traditional cuisines of their own country, but provided positive comments for benchmarking the use of traditional pickled foods. This study suggests that it may be necessary to implement a two-track strategy by the traditional kimchi as a ‘strategic product’ and localized kimchi as a ‘key product’.

This study examined the state of awareness, consumption, and purchasing behavior of Kimchi among Chinese adults in Beijing and Shanghai. Two-hundred Chinese individuals in Beijing and Shanghai were included as study subjects. The subjects selected “good Kimchi for Chinese taste” as excellent Kimchi; however, only 13% of the subjects selected “Kimchi from Korea is excellent.” The first sites of Kimchi consumption in China included “home” (59.0%) and “restaurants” (40.0%) in Beijing and “restaurants” (57.0%) and “home” (32.0%) in Shanghai. Chinese people primarily purchase 400g pouches of Kimchi more than once a month, and the average price of Kimchi is RMB 12.59 in Beijing and RMB 18.32 in Shanghai. These results suggest that the interest in Kimchi varieties and the countries producing it differ among Chinese consumers depending on the region. Therefore, a sensory evaluation of Kimchi is essential to determine the preferred flavor of Kimchi among Chinese individuals and to promote the consumption of traditional Korean Kimchi

Although Kimchi is a Korean traditional food, domestic consumption has been decreasing steadily and the trade inversion phenomenon has reached a serious level due to the surge of Chinese Kimchi imports. Moreover, cases where foreign Kimchi is transformed illegally into Korean Kimchi are frequent, which impedes the expansion of Korean Kimchi exports. To sustain the Korean Kimchi industry in a situation where the domestic and overseas conditions are deteriorating, it is necessary to positively review the introduction of Kimchi into a geographical indication (GI) system. This study examined the intention of foreign consumers to purchase Korean Kimchi with GI and analyzed the impact on the trade balance. Approximately 42.8% of 500 Japanese consumers answered that they would purchase Korean Kimchi with GI and they were willing to pay 7.8% more than the present price. Approximately 78.7% of 300 Taiwanese consumers replied that they purchase it and would pay 25.1% more. In addition, Japanese and Taiwanese consumers reported that they expected to increase their Korean Kimchi purchases by 21.9 and 22.4%, respectively. Based on the survey results, the effects of the trade balance were measured using the methodology of a preliminary impact assessment using the KREI-KASMO model. The trade balance of Kimchi is expected to improve slightly at an annual average of 11.718.6 million US$ to as much as 27.7~35.8 million US$.

The purpose of this study is to provide basic information to improve understanding of contemporary kimchi culture in Korea. Many Koreans are now purchasing kimchi at markets, while the proportion of self-preparation is gradually decreasing. This commodification tendency of kimchi is considered to be associated with changes in consumer’s behavior and attitude. In this study, a linear regression and a logistic regression model were used to identify relationships between kimchi consumption behavior and household characteristics. The results showed that the probability of kimjang activity was positively related with family size, possession of a kimchi refrigerator, self-preparation practice, and the intensity of sharing behavior. I also found that kimchi consumption volume per capita of ‘purchasing’ household was greater than that of ‘selfpreparing ’ or ‘sharing-dependent’ households, and that the number of family members was inversely related with kimchi consumption volume per capita. The inverse relationship between family size and kimchi consumption volume per capita is considered to be contrary to the widespread thoughts in Korea, which have been developed while experiencing kimchi preparation and consumption in traditional extended families. I think that the relationship comes from differences in menu varieties, which appear to vary with family size. This issue will be investigated in subsequent studies.

Kimchi is a traditional Korean fermented vegetable probiotic food. The use of high quality ingredients and predominant LAB (lactic acid bacteria)-whether it be ambient bacteria or adding starters, low temperature and facultative anaerobic condition for the fermentation are important factors for preparing kimchi with better taste and functionality. The predominated LAB genera are Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Weissella in kimchi fermentation. The representative species are Leu. mesenteroides, Leu. citrium, Lab. plantarum, Lab. sakei, and Wei. koreensis. Kimchi, especially the optimally fermented kimchi, has various health benefits, including control of colon health, antioxidation, antiaging effects, cancer preventive effect, antiobesity, control of dyslipidemic and metabolic syndrome, etc.; due to the presence of LAB, various nutraceuticals, and metabolites from the ingredients and LAB. The kimchi LAB are good probiotics, exhibiting antimicrobial activity, antioxidant, antimutagenic and anticancer effects, as well as immunomodualatory effect, antiobesity, and cholesterol and lipid lowering effects. Thus, kimchi ingredients, LAB, fermentation methods, and metabolites are important factors that modulate various functionalities. In this review, we introduced recent information showing kimchi and its health benefits in Korean Functional Foods (Park & Ju 2018)

The modernization process of Korea, which can be considered westernization, has influenced Korean folk culture. In this process the kimchi culture could be destroyed. However the kimchi culture has survived very well to date. This study was conducted to investigate the cause of this survival of the kimchi culture. To accomplish this, the enormous influence of modernization on kimchi culture and the cause of its successful survival was investigated in the middle region of the Korean peninsula. We think that the kimchi culture can survive because of the inherent system and structure. Kimchi is composed of vegetables, salt, seasoning, and salted seafood (jeotgal), which are systemized. We also described the kimchi ethnography in this region to study the regional characteristics. The eastern coast uses a different method to salt the cabbage during the production of Kimchi, namely it uses seawater to accomplish this. Additionally, pollak broth is used instead of jeotgal. However nowadays the regional uniqueness of kimchi culture has greatly disappeared in large part, and Korean kimchi is standardized in this region.

The history of modern Korean ‘kimchi’ can be traced through the history of the wordforms ‘dihi’ (디히), ‘dimchΛi’ (딤 ), and ‘thimchΛi’ (팀 ) in ancient Korean texts. As native Korean words, the ‘dihi’ word line (‘dihi’, ‘dii’, ‘jihi’, and ‘ji’) constitutes an old substratum. This word line coexisted with the ‘dimchΛi’ word line (dimchΛi, jimchΛi, and kim∫chi) from the Hanja ‘沈菜’. ‘Ji’, which is the last word variation of ‘dihi’, and is still used today as the unique form in several Korean dialects. In standard Korean, however, it only serves as a suffix to form the derivative names of various kimchi types. ‘DimchΛi’ is believed to have appeared around the 6th-7th centuries, when Silla began to master Chinese characters. Hence,‘dimchΛi’ reflects either the Archaic Chinese (上古音) or the Old Chinese (中古音) pronunciation of the Hanja, ‘沈 菜’. With the palatalization of the plosive alveolar [t], ‘dimchΛi’ changed to ‘jimchΛi’. The Yangban intellectuals’ rejection of the palatalization of the plosive velar [k] led to the hypercorrection of ‘jimchΛi’ into ‘kimchΛi’. It is precisely the hypercorrect ‘kimchΛe’ that gave the wordform ‘kim∫chi’, which has eventually become the standard and predominant form in today’s Korean language. Regarding ‘thimchΛe’, it reflects the Middle Chinese (Yuan Dynasty) pronunciation of the Hanja ‘沈菜’ and was used mainly in writing by Yangban intellectuals.

This paper provides a comprehensive description of previous studies of making and developing kimchi in terms of the origins of kimchi and the changes in the history of kimchi, along with newly discovered data, including the collection of works in Joseon Dynasty as well as old cookbooks discovered after the year 2000, and latest research in related disciplines, e.g., ancient history studies, archeology, and linguistics. Because new ruins and relics, such as the Liao-ho Civilization in the Northeast Asia continent, which was closely related to Dongyi tribes, have been discovered and studied, it is important to determine how to reflect the outcome of archeological studies on the origin of preserved vegetables. In addition, to describe the background and changes in the independent formation of making Korean kimchi chronologically, they were divided into the following: development from jjanji to singunji; formation of the basis for seokbakji dressed with fermented fish sauce; settlement of seokbakji culture for dressing seokbakji with fermented fish sauce and spices, including chili varieties when they were introduced; and establishment of the method for making whole cabbage kimchi, which is currently typical kimchi made by adding the seokbakji as the stuffing of the cabbage kimchi, to examine the time and specific details of the change.

본 연구는 우리나라의 전통음식으로 전 세계적으로 알려진 김치의 기능성 강화식품으로 고부가가치를 창출하기 위하여 대조김치와 기능성 김치의 항산화능을 관찰하였다. 연구결과, 버섯과 다시마 추출물과 갓을 첨가하여 발효시킨 기능성 김치에서는 총 폴리페놀 함량이 대조김치보다 2배 증가되어 있었고, DPPH 라디칼과 ABTS 양이온 소거능에서도 기능성 김치가 대조김치에 비해 각각 2.7배와 1.7배 가량 유의적으로 높았다. 또한, FRAP 환원능은 기능성 김치가 대조김치에 비해 1.6배를, ORAC가는 1.1배를 나타내었다. 이상의 연구결과를 통해 항산화 활성이 높은 재료를 첨가한 김치는 발효과정을 거치면서 김치가 가지고 있는 건강기능성을 더욱 향상시킨 항산화 강화 기능성 김치의 개발 가능성을 확인하였다. 따라서 본 연구는 항산화 강화 김치의 생산기술 개발에 초석을 이루는 자료를 제공할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

본 연구는 시판 김치에 대한 소비자 인식을 통해 재료의 비율을 최적화하여 최적의 김치양념장을 개발하기 위한 연구이다. 189명의 20대이상 여성을 대상으로 조사를 실시하여 김치양념 재료 중 액젓, 젓갈, 물의 비율을 반응최적화 도구을 통해 최적 김치양념장 레시피를 선정하였다. 조사 대상 중 30대가 41.3%로 가장 많았고, 직업은 주부, 기타 직업, 학생순으로 조사되었다. 시판되는 김치를 구매하고 싶은 이유로 가정에서 김치를 만들기 번거로운 면과 경제 적인 면을 많이 꼽았으며, 나이가 어릴수록 김치를 만드는 방법을 모르기 때문이라는 답변이 많았다. 또한 가족 구성원 수가 적을수록 김치를 적게 먹어서 시판김치를 구매하는 경향이 있었다. 시판김치를 구매하지 않고 싶은 이유로 재료에 대한 믿음과 비싼 가격에 대한 이유가 높게 나타났고, 수입이 많을수록 인공조미료 사용 때문에 시판김치를 구매하지 않는다는 의견이 많았다. 김치에 대한 선호 맛은 감칠맛, 매운맛, 젓갈맛, 짠맛, 단맛 순이었으며, 나이가 어릴수록 짠맛을 선호하고, 41세 이상은 젓갈맛을 선호하는 것으로 조사되었다. 사전 조사 및 설문조사를 통해 김치 양념장제조시 조정 해야 할 재료를 멸치액젓, 물, 새우젓으로 선정하여 배합 비율을 조정하여 기호도에 대한 최적화를 잡은 결과 ‘–11.00A + 4.30B + 1.70C + 31.37AB + 33.56AC – 7.35BC’ (A: 멸치 액젓, B: 물, C: 새우젓)의 회귀식을 나타냈고, 멸치 액젓, 물, 새우젓의 최적 비율은 27.12 : 62.88 : 10.00 (w/w)이었다. 이 같은 연구 결과는 김치 양념 의 최적화를 통해 보다 좋은 맛과 품질의 김치를 개발할 데이터로 활용 가능하며, 고객 맞춤형 김치 양념장 개발에도 사용가능 할 것으로 보인다.