Discussion

In the fermented kimchi, it is determined that there are microbial population and colonies
of microbial have been observed in the first streaking and second streaking in all nutrient agar
plates. However there are not much single colony can be observed for the forth streak. It might
because the handling and streaking method has not been done proper for each of the group
member. Thus, there are not consistency for the result for each agar plate. By observing the
result, the burning process before every streaking and burning process only at the starting
point do not influence the number of colonies for bacteria. Based on Cho et al. (2006), lactic
acid bacteria are the main role to perform fermentation of kimchi. The research has identified
that the specific lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, and Weissella
species which cause the cabbage fermentation. Different temperature and pH values affect
the types of bacteria growing during the fermentation process. However we can still conclude
that these bacteria are responsible for the fermentation since during the kimchi preparation, it
has to be put in room temperature then in refrigerator.

Lactic acid fermentation required little or no heat during the fermentation. During the
fermentation, lactic acid bacteria causes the oxidation of carbohydrates to carbon dioxide
alcohol, and organic acid that prevent pathogen. Lactic acid bacteria will also lower the pH
value during the fermentation to inhibit the growing of other microbial organisms. Thus, at the
end, the vegetables will be fermented rather than spoil. It is useful to preserve vegetables
which kimchi in this case.

Cho, J., Lee, D., Yang, C., Jeon, J., Kim, J., & Han, H. (2006). Microbial population
dynamics of kimchi, a fermented cabbage product. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 257(2),
262–267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-6968.2006.00186.x