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Home / News / Real Pickles Partners with UMass Scientists to Study Facility Microbiome

November 1, 2018

Real Pickles Partners with UMass Scientists to Study Facility Microbiome

AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientists have mapped and characterized microbial populations at Real Pickles’ facility and report that its microbiome was distinct between production and fermentation areas and that the raw vegetables themselves – cabbages destined for sauerkraut – were the main source of fermentation-related microbes in production areas rather than handling or other environmental sources. 

Writing in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, scientists in Dr. David Sela’s lab at UMass Amherst, in collaboration with scientists from two units of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, say this study helps to resolve the question of how microbes are transferred within a food fermentation production facility.

Real Pickles is a worker-owned cooperative in Greenfield, Mass. and makes pickles, sauerkraut, and other fermented vegetables the old-fashioned way, by natural fermentation and without starter cultures or inoculants. Nutritional microbiologist Sela notes that very little is known about the microbiomes of these facilities. Fermented foods are increasingly popular internationally, he adds, because of their enhanced nutritional properties, cultural history and flavor, so the new information from this study should be of interest to food scientists, microbiologists and manufacturers around the world.

Company founder Dan Rosenberg says, “It’s fascinating to learn about the influence of fresh vegetables in establishing our facility’s microbiome and suggests that our use of organic vegetables is important to contributing a diverse microbial community to support a vigorous fermentation. It raises interesting questions about how we can further improve our production practices to be producing fermented and probiotic foods of the highest quality.”

The scientists used a state-of-the-art genomics approach to identify microbial species present instead of culturing the microbes. This allowed the team to quickly identify more microbes than conventional methods, to estimate their relative numbers, predict their function and determine the flow of microbes into and within the facility.

Sela adds, “For the first time, we built a map of the facility and how it was transformed over time during fermentation, which has given us a more complete picture of the population in a real vegetable fermentation facility. Both cheese and beer have been done to a certain extent, but we feel that fermented vegetable facilities could be better characterized. And because we are using these new genomic tools, we have a better understanding of what is there and how they got there. Using the traditional approach, we couldn’t possibly culture everything, so we’d have a far more limited picture.”

“There is so much still to learn about fermented foods, nutrition, and the human gut microbiome – we are excited to be a part of the science exploring these important questions,” says Rosenberg.

This work was funded in part by the Center for Produce Safety, and undergraduate fellowships from the American Society for Microbiology, the UMass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College and the UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment.

Contact: Addie Rose Holland; 413/774-2600; addierose@realpickles.com

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Join us in signing up for this year’s @FoodSolut Join us in signing up for this year’s @FoodSolutionsNewEngland 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge running from April 5-25th! Help dismantle racism in our #foodsystem, raise awareness, shift attitudes & change outcomes. #FSNEEquityChallenge #foodjustice http://fsne.info/FSNEEquityChallenge
A future Organic Dill Pickle! Celebrate spring! ☀️🥒 
Repost from @atlasfarm
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Bug's eye view in the Atlas Farm greenhouse! The cukes have been clipped to trellis strings in preparation for a sky-ward growth spurt. Just a couple months 'til we're harvesting! #atlasfarm #organicfarming #greenhouse #cucumbers
We are so excited to be able to start the vaccinat We are so excited to be able to start the vaccination process as food and ag workers! We greatly appreciate all the hard work happening in our community to make sure that everyone who wants to be vaccinated gets vaccinated! 

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Repost from @theblackaisle_ • DEBT RELIEF IS COM Repost from @theblackaisle_
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DEBT RELIEF IS COMING TO BLACK FARMERS. 

Many white people have become aware in the last year of the discrimination that Black Americans face in policing, voting, health care and more. Few, however, may recognize that systemic racism led to another grave injustice, one that underpins many other forms of exploitation: More than a century of land theft and the exclusion of Black people from government agricultural programs have denied many descendants of enslaved people livelihoods as independent, landowning farmers.

African-American labor built much of this country’s agriculture, a prime source of the nation’s early wealth. In the years since the end of slavery, Black Americans have been largely left out of federal land giveaways, loans and farm improvement programs. They have been driven off their farms through a combination of terror and mistreatment by the federal government, resulting in debt, foreclosures and impoverishment.

Read the full story on theblackaisle.com. LINK IN BIO
#blackfarmers #farming #blackgardeners #blackfarmer
Spring is just around the corner! Help it along by Spring is just around the corner! Help it along by sipping our Organic Beet Kvass, a fermented infusion of beets, onions and savory herbs. We think the earthy flavor tastes like springtime! This Good Food Award winner can be enjoyed as a sipping tonic, in salad dressings, or as a classic stock for end-of-winter vegetable soups. How do you like your kvass? 

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Meet Andy! Andy has been working as a production a Meet Andy! Andy has been working as a production assistant at Real Pickles since 2012. He joined the team after learning that Real Pickles was transitioning to a worker-owned co-operative and he wanted to be a part of a business that he could truly believe in and feel really good about. He quickly became a worker owner and joined the board of directors. In addition to being passionate about the mission driving the work at Real Pickles, Andy loves the people he works with and says that each workday he feels like he is glimpsing a better world, “It’s like we’re on a trip in a van with these people and we are just trying to keep each other happy!” When Andy is not at Real Pickles he can be found making music or creating beautiful pieces of stoneware pottery that he sells at various galleries and art fairs throughout the country. Andy plays guitar with a few bands and is working on a project with his young grand-nieces co-writing songs and producing an album. He also plays music every week at Real Pickles with our fermentation manager, Katie!  Andy says that he feels lucky to be a part of the Real Pickles family - but we think we are the lucky ones! Andy is a true treasure to work with. 

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