Fermented & Preserved Foods
The supplied abstracts do not support one universal, species-by-species stage map for kimchi, because succession varies with species and production conditions. Broadly, early fermentation is associated mainly with Weissella and Leuconostoc; as fermentation proceeds, lactic acid bacteria become dominant, while non-lactic-acid bacteria decline or disappear. Lactobacillus becomes an important member of the later community in some fermentations, but the exact sequence depends on the raw materials and conditions.
The clearest stage-related finding is that traditionally produced cabbage kimchi was initially dominated by Weissella and Leuconostoc, followed by broader lactic-acid-bacteria dominance at later stages. A separate succession study identifies Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Weissella as the key genera, but explicitly says that their order of succession varied among species. Fermentation conditions also matter: under the conventional condition studied, non-lactic-acid bacteria were eliminated after 12 days, whereas under CO2-rich conditions they were eliminated after 6 days. Thus, it is safer to describe a general pattern—early Weissella/Leuconostoc, later LAB dominance—rather than assign fixed bacterial “drivers” to every kimchi stage.
Answer last checked 2026-08-18T17:14:01.560Z. Answerlog reads titles and abstracts, not full papers, and does not assess study quality or claim consensus.