Indice
1. Before we dive into our discussion, Insights about you and your professional background
David Zilber is a chef fermenter originated from Toronto, Canada and he started learning to cook at the age of 18.
From a butcher and to a professional chef, he expressed his pride to join fine dining restaurants where the Asian and western fusions inspired him to move forward on his career and become a sous chef in one of Canada best restaurants.
During his experience at Noma restaurant, his interest into the molecular food science sparked and led him to move to the fermentation lab for research. In this context, David highlighted the current considerations relative to fermentation as a newly explored world, while “…it’s been with us since time immemorial”.
In fact, human beings co-evolved with the plant species and microbes since the past 1000s of years or more but the full attention given now to fermentation is “because we’re realizing the manifold potential of these combinations of microbes and food ingredients” as elucidated by our guest David.
2. Considering that there are some diets that include fermented foods others not, why is it important to include fermented foods in our daily diet?
With regards to the diversity of diets around the world, they exist diets with more intensive fermented foods like dairy food in “the culture of … Eastern Caucasus Mountains …are excellent examples of that” as cited by David.
In fact, these bacteria do more than just populating the human digestive system, actually they interfere with food and bacteria “…make foods themselves more digestible, more nutritionally available, more bioavailable” as explained by our guest.
Through reflecting on the link between our digestive system, the living organisms and fermentation, David acknowledged that “…the microbes that come to live inside us, aren’t there by accident, it’s because they… persist in our environment.”
Accordingly, when the food is fermented, it means employing these microbes by controlling what population of microbes grow for which benefit and “…we’re kind of getting in the way of some of these natural processes and becoming a force of selection ourselves” as explained by David.
3. What’s the food categories that can be fermented? Does CHR Hansen offer pure cultures of microbes depending on the food category base?
According to David Zilber, microorganisms are like any other living, they function in conditions better than others. As described by David:
“You can't throw a fish off a cliff and expect it to do well. But you can throw a seagull off a cliff and expect it to do well…That applies 100% to two microbes as well.”
Furthermore, the practical example of lactic bacteria is proving their effectiveness in transforming milk sugars and producing necessary metabolites on cow milk base but when it comes to another base such as coconut milk “… you’ll find that the microbes might have a little bit of a tough time … in digesting the same sugars or producing the same results” as confirmed by David.
In parallel, CHR Hansen is joining effort to scan over the extensive culture bank “some 40,000 different bacterial cultures to figure out which ones are the best candidates that have the best enzymatic toolkits that can go to work on these new substrates in these new food categories” as demonstrated by David.
4. Nowadays, consumers switch to healthier options like plant based alternatives, can you talk to us about the applications of fermentation on plant bases?
“Has really good beneficial qualities in either … in making great flavors or reducing some of the off flavors that people find a bit challenging when they consume these products”.
5. From a sustainability point of view, Does fermentation may help food producers to overcome global challenges like food waste?
Speaking of solutions to tackle food waste, CHR Hansen is also involved in the bio protection field.
The idea is to detect bacteria with low flavor profile and high potential of competing with pathogens and molds to be mixed with the product in order to extend its shelf life either in household’s refrigerators or supermarkets shelves.
David Zilber demonstrated another strategy of Food waste management through fermentation that can be integrated into waste streams of industry and give to the unwanted by-product a new life with a new purpose.
Conclusions
Since not every produce or by-product is adequate for human consumption, fermentation can be capitalized to endure the massive industry waste or to help manage the huge surplus of harvest at Farm level. Luckily, the constant research work inside CHR Hansen in collaboration with David Zilber is exploring new solutions for the agri-food industry to also enhance the overall nutritional value of our food. Likewise, fruitful results will raise from the engagement of CHR Hansen research team to look over the existing traditions in order to level up the solutions offered by the company for food fermentation processes.
Banner Babbel for Business
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Chr. Hansen
The growing consumer interest in functional probiotic foods is driving Chr. Hansen's to commit everyday for the global health and provide healthy microorganisms through the use of technology.
In practice, the goal of driving change with sustainable and natural impact is now at the heart of the company's 2025 strategy:
"Grow a better world. Naturally.
David Zilber
David Zilber was born in 1985 and he is originally from Toronto, Ontario. He has a background as a professional chef, butcher, photographer and author. He was the head of fermentation at Noma restaurants in Copenhagen, the best restaurant in the world for several times over the last decade. Now he joins forces with CHR Hansen, the 145-year-old global bioscience company to explore the exciting world of fermentation.
