A new study in the Journal of Dairy Science® determined that adding pickled cucumbers to sour cream can improve its antioxidant properties and enhance its health-promoting activities
Philadelphia, May 12, 2022 – Consumer demand for dairy foods has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased demand for foods that can be easily stored and maintain quality over time. In a new report published in the Journal of Dairy Science®, scientists from the Poznań University of Life Sciences (Poznań, Poland) investigated whether adding fresh or pickled cucumber to sour cream could improve its antioxidative properties or modulate cholesterol transformation during storage.
Demand for high-fat yogurt and sour cream has increased during the pandemic, likely because of their beneficial effects on the immune system or increased consumer interest in ketogenic diets. Research has also shown that the desire for refreshing products can be enhanced by adding vegetables, including cucumber, which is an ideal raw material for producing fermented foods.
“However, when pickled cucumbers are produced by spontaneous fermentation, the amount and type of microorganisms they contain can vary significantly,” said lead investigator Dorota Cais-Sokolińska, PhD, of the Poznań University of Life Sciences Department of Dairy and Process Engineering. “In addition, sour cream with vegetables is often sold in transparent packaging to increase its attractiveness. These observations led us to explore the potential benefits of adding fresh and pickled cucumbers (spontaneous fermentation) to sour cream (targeted fermentation) by examining the effects of this addition on the content of oxysterols. We also examined the effects of light exposure on sour cream with and without fresh or pickled cucumbers over time.”
Oxysterols are biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases and can influence carcinogenesis and cancer progression.
The study was also inspired by the French paradox—the observation that with the French diet, reduced heart disease is associated with a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Cais-Sokolińska continued, “Therefore, we also examined the content of cholesterol oxidation products in sour cream, a product that is associated with a high intake of saturated fat and cholesterol.”
In the study, clear containers containing sour cream, sour cream with fresh cucumber, or sour cream with pickled cucumber were stored for three weeks while being exposed to light. At the end of the storage period, the researchers measured differences in cholesterol content, cholesterol transformation products, antioxidant activity, and bioaccessibility of antioxidant activity.
Caption: A new study in the Journal of Dairy Science determined that adding pickled cucumbers to sour cream can improve its antioxidant properties and enhance its health-promoting activities (Credit: Dorota Cais-Sokolińska).
The researchers found a significant decrease in cholesterol content in the sour cream with pickled cucumber after storage, from 4.03 g/kg of fat to 3.44 g/kg of fat. Cholesterol oxidation products are formed by oxidation of cholesterol during storage. In plain sour cream, the cholesterol oxidation product content more than tripled; however, it did not change significantly in sour cream with pickled cucumber.
The addition of pickled cucumber to sour cream also significantly increased both antioxidant activity and in vitro bioaccessibility of antioxidant activity. Although cucumbers contain many natural antioxidants, the sour cream with pickled cucumber showed these changes to a much greater degree than sour cream with fresh cucumber.
Although future work is needed to characterize the properties of specific lactic acid bacteria produced by spontaneous fermentation, this study showed that the addition of spontaneously fermented pickled cucumbers to sour cream can inhibit the production of cholesterol oxidation products during storage, improve its antioxidant properties, and enhance its health-promoting activities through the presence of metabolically active lactic acid bacteria.
Notes for editors
The article is “Photosensitized oxidation of cholesterol and altered oxysterol levels in sour cream: Effects of addition of cucumber pickles,” by Dorota Cais-Sokolińska, Dorota Walkowiak-Tomczak, and Magdalena Rudzińska (https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-21856). It appears online ahead of the Journal of Dairy Science, volume 105, issue 6 (June 2022), published by Fass Inc. and Elsevier.
The article is openly available at www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(22)00235-1/fulltext.
Full text of the article is also available to credentialed journalists upon request. Contact Eileen Leahy at +1 732 238 3628 or jdsmedia@elsevier.com to obtain copies. Journalists wishing to interview the authors should contact the corresponding author, Dorota Cais-Sokolińska, Department of Dairy and Process Engineering, Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poznań, Poland, at cais@up.poznan.pl.
About the Journal of Dairy Science
The Journal of Dairy Science® (JDS), an official journal of the American Dairy Science Association®, is co-published by Elsevier and Fass Inc. for the American Dairy Science Association. It is the leading general dairy research journal in the world, and as of January 2022, it is an open access journal. JDS readers represent education, industry, and government agencies in more than 70 countries, with interests in biochemistry, breeding, economics, engineering, environment, food science, genetics, microbiology, nutrition, pathology, physiology, processing, public health, quality assurance, and sanitation. JDS has a 2020 Journal Impact Factor of 4.034 and five-year Journal Impact Factor of 4.354 according to Journal Citation Reports (Source: Clarivate 2021). www.journalofdairyscience.org
About the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA)
The ADSA is an international organization of educators, scientists, and industry representatives who are committed to advancing the dairy industry and keenly aware of the vital role the dairy sciences play in fulfilling the economic, nutritive, and health requirements of the world's population. It provides leadership in scientific and technical support to sustain and grow the global dairy industry through generation, dissemination, and exchange of information and services. Together, ADSA members have discovered new methods and technologies that have revolutionized the dairy industry. www.adsa.org
About Fass Inc.
Since 1998, Fass has provided shared management services to not-for-profit scientific organizations. With combined membership rosters of more than 10,000 professionals in animal agriculture and other sciences, Fass offers clients services in accounting, membership management, convention and meeting planning, information technology, and scientific publication support. The Fass publications department provides journal management, peer-review support, copyediting, and composition for this journal; the staff includes five BELS-certified (www.bels.org) technical editors and experienced composition staff. www.fass.org
About Elsevier
As a global leader in information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We do this by facilitating insights and critical decision-making for customers across the global research and health ecosystems.
In everything we publish, we uphold the highest standards of quality and integrity. We bring that same rigor to our information analytics solutions for researchers, health professionals, institutions and funders.
Elsevier employs 8,700 people worldwide. We have supported the work of our research and health partners for more than 140 years. Growing from our roots in publishing, we offer knowledge and valuable analytics that help our users make breakthroughs and drive societal progress. Digital solutions such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath support strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and health education. Researchers and healthcare professionals rely on our over 2,700 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell; our over 43,000 eBook titles; and our iconic reference works, such as Gray's Anatomy. With the Elsevier Foundation and our external Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, we work in partnership with diverse stakeholders to advance inclusion and diversity in science, research and healthcare in developing countries and around the world.
Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.elsevier.com