The hottest Fermentation Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Culture Shift

Asimov Press • 412 implied HN points • 20 Mar 26
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Fermented foods likely helped shape human biology over millions of years, from genetic changes that improved alcohol tolerance to a recently evolved immune receptor that senses fermented-food molecules.
  2. Regularly eating fermented foods can boost gut microbial diversity and lower inflammation, but most people in Western diets consume far fewer servings than the amounts shown to have clinical effects.
  3. Industrial food safety and processing pushed microbes out of many foods, and scientists are now building large, standardized datasets to map which fermented-food microbes and metabolites actually drive health benefits.

Flowers and flours

Wordloaf • 884 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Debra Wink, a sourdough expert, recommends using pineapple juice in the initial starter mixture to create favorable conditions for lactic acid bacteria and yeast growth.
  2. Monitoring and adjusting the pH of sourdough starters can play a key role in activating yeast and preventing undesirable bacteria, leading to successful starter maintenance.
  3. Leaving starters at room temperature instead of refrigerating them for short periods can help retain their robustness and enhance their performance.

Hot Sauce

Points And Figures • 826 implied HN points • 04 Jan 25
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Cooking at home can be a fun and creative outlet, especially for those who enjoy trying new recipes and dishes. Using fresh ingredients can enhance the experience, like making homemade pasta or fermented sauces.
  2. Fermented foods like hot sauce and sauerkraut are not only tasty but also good for gut health. They can be simple to make at home and can add unique flavors to your meals.
  3. It's often frustrating when dining out, as homemade meals can sometimes taste better than restaurant dishes. This makes cooking at home even more rewarding and enjoyable.

Types of Rennet and coagulation basics

Milk Trekker • 216 implied HN points • 24 Jan 24
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Enzymatic coagulation involves using rennet from animals like cows and sometimes even pigs, chickens, or armadillos.
  2. Lactic coagulation, like sour milk or yogurt, occurs when milk becomes so sour it coagulates into a gel.
  3. A hybrid category, lactic/enzymatic cheese like chèvre, involves slow coagulation from acidity with a touch of rennet.

Vac Beer Is a Lawful Consumer Product

Viruses Must Die • 26 implied HN points • 24 Dec 25
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Whether something is a food or a drug depends on how it’s marketed and labeled, not just the ingredient itself, so calling an item a "vaccine" by itself doesn’t automatically make it a drug. Food products can contain bioactive ingredients and still be regulated as foods if no disease-treatment claims are made.
  2. You can legally sell organisms that can produce vaccine antigens as foods (for example, yeast that only makes the antigen when brewed with maltose) to establish prior food marketing and preserve the option to later pursue clinical IND studies. This "vac foods" approach aims to democratize vaccine development while keeping production transparent to consumers.
  3. Safety and regulatory rules matter: GRAS status, IND timing, and ingredient safety (e.g., viral VP1, GFP, residual formaldehyde, yeast strains) are central concerns, and this strategy is legally novel and should be pursued with caution and clear disclosure.
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Norway: Exploring the dairying, cheese, and milk fermentation traditions.

Milk Trekker • 157 implied HN points • 04 Aug 23
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. The author is shifting to shorter, more frequent posts on their project, with full versions available to paid subscribers.
  2. The author is transparent about their funding sources, which include crowdfunding and earning money through various activities related to their cheese research.
  3. Exploring Norway's dairy traditions has led to new insights on diverse dairy food products and techniques.

Natto: King of Fermented Foods

Eat Shit and Prosper • 419 implied HN points • 08 Jan 23
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Natto is a unique fermented soybean food packed with health benefits. It's made using a special bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, which isn't found in many other fermented foods.
  2. It contains important nutrients like vitamin K and PQQ, which can help with energy, stress protection, and overall heart health. Eating natto can enhance the nutrition of other foods you eat it with.
  3. Though its slimy texture might be off-putting, natto has been enjoyed in Japan for centuries and can be delicious when prepared well. Finding it at an Asian grocery store is a good start for trying it out.

Spill the TEA

The Century of Biology • 453 implied HN points • 28 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Fermentation
  1. Industrial biotechnology aims to transition our economy to more sustainable biomanufacturing.
  2. Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) helps forecast new technology's competitiveness in industrial markets.
  3. Synonym's tool Scaler simplifies TEA for synthetic biologists, potentially changing the financing structure of biomanufacturing.

India's Landmark Cultivated Fish Project, Halal Cultivated Meat, and Microalgae-Based Human Milk

Better Bioeconomy • 39 implied HN points • 04 Feb 24
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. India is making strides in food innovation with projects like cultivated fish, halal meat, and microalgae-based human milk.
  2. There is a need to overhaul food tech funding for more systemic change and sustainability.
  3. Consumer preferences are shifting towards labels like 'healthy' and 'sustainable' over 'vegan' or 'plant-based'.

Future Food Fermentat10n: January 2024

Better Bioeconomy • 39 implied HN points • 01 Feb 24
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Imagindairy receives US regulatory approval and acquires an industrial-scale production plant for animal-free dairy proteins.
  2. Infinite Roots secures $58M in Series B funding, the largest mycelium investment in Europe, to expand production and launch globally.
  3. Liberation Labs and Ivy Tech Community College partner to launch a biomanufacturing workforce training program, creating new career opportunities.

Precision Fermentation: The Future of Food

WeBeGreen • 59 implied HN points • 14 Apr 23
🍲 Food & Drink Fermentation
  1. Animal agriculture has major environmental impacts, is inefficient, and requires vast resources - Precision Fermentation offers a sustainable alternative.
  2. Precision Fermentation uses microorganisms to create specific food components, like proteins, without the need for animals, potentially revolutionizing the food industry.
  3. The shift to Precision Fermentation in food production can significantly reduce land use, energy consumption, and environmental harm caused by traditional agricultural practices.

Fermentation Does Not Neutrailize the Goitrogenic Effect of Soy — It Makes It Worse!

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 10
🏥 Health & Wellness Fermentation
  1. Fermentation of soy does not neutralize the goitrogenic effect, it can actually make it worse.
  2. Isoflavones in soy, like genistein and daidzein, are the problematic toxins that exist in unprocessed soybeans.
  3. Consuming soy in moderation along with plenty of iodine is recommended to mitigate the goitrogenic effect.