INTRODUCTION
Pickling is one of the eldest methods in food preservation. Pickles are usually made from either
vegetables or fruits. Pickling consists of chemical pickling and also fermentation pickling. During
chemical pickling, food is placed in a solution, which inhibits and kills the undesirable bacteria,
which can cause food spoilage. The solution is usually brine solution (high concentration of salt
solution). Meanwhile, lactic acid is produced from the food itself in fermentation pickling in
addition of preservation agent (Iordache et al., 2017).
The addition of salt or sugar destroys unwanted microbial activity, providing an ideal
environment for the desired fermentation. Pickles are conserved by combining the acidity or
reduced of pH by addition of salt, sugar or vinegar. The quantity of salt or sugar added in the
pickling process controls the form and the rate of fermentation. Anaerobic fermentation takes place
during pickling process in brine solution. Anaerobic fermentation generating lactic acid or acetic
acid if vinegar is used instead of salt (Barret, 2003).
Lactic acid bacteria abide high salt concentrations, which gives them benefit over others.
Salt plays a significant part in the pickling process as it permits the lactic acid fermenter to
commence absorption, which producing acid, thus prevent the growth of microbial activity (Raab,
2008). The favorable species that is leuconostoc species will take place as this species can survive
at high concentration of solution, which make them being able to initiate the lactic acid
fermentation (ShishirSinha. n.d.).
Besides that, salt also crucial in order to initiate the fermentation process thus it affects the
quality of the food produced. The addition of salt or sugar will constrain the desirable bacteria thus
inhibiting the undesirable bacteria from growing. Furthermore, addition of salt or sugar in the food
will affect the rigidity and appearance texture of the food.
Problem Statement
Microbial growth and undesired bacteria presence in the food will cause food spoilage. In order to
prevent food spoilage, food preservation techniques are applied in order to prevent microbial
growth thus making the food last longer. There are several ways to prevent microbial growth such
as pickling process. Pickling is one of the simplest methods to preserve food from spoilage as it
only needs preservative agent such as salt, sugar or vinegar. After mixing the food with the
preservative agent, the food will be placed at either room temperature or in the refrigerator. When
pickling process is applied to a mango, it is expected to see the color changes occur from bright
yellow to yellowish-green in color and the texture of the mango; from firm to soft texture.
Objective
The objective of this experiment is to observe the effect of pickling process applied by using salt
and sugar on the quality of food. Besides that, the objective of this experiment is to compare and
to observe the appearance and of the food such as smell, color changes and texture of the food
before and after the pickling process.
1. Barrett, D. M. (2003). PICKLING. In Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition (pp.
4563–4566). Elsevier. [Link]
2. Iordache, F., Gheorghe, I., Lazar, V., Curutiu, C., Ditu, L. M., Grumezescu, A. M., &
Holban, A. M. (2017). Nanostructurated materials for prolonged and safe food
preservation. In Food Preservation (pp. 305–335). Elsevier. [Link]
0-12-804303-5.00009-2
3. Raab, C. A. (2008). Pickling Vegetables. Pacific Northwest Extension, (June).
4. Dr. ShishirSinha. (n.d.). Food Preservation by Pickling. Food Preservation by Pickling,
22(22), 1–3. Retrieved from
[Link]
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