Effect of Temperature on the Production of Free Organic Acids during Kimchi Fermentation

The production of free non-volatile and volatile organic acids in Kimchi during fermentations at 30, 20 and $5^{\circ}C$, were determined by gas chromatography. The order in the amount of non-volatile organic acid, soon after preparation, was malic, citric, tartaric, pyroglutamic, oxalic, lactic, succinic and ${\alpha}-ketoglutaric$ acids. The major non-volatile acids at the optimum ripening time were malic, tartaric, citric and lactic acids, and as the temperature was lowered, the amount of lactic, succinic, oxalic, pyroglutamic and fumaric acids increased, while that of malic and tartaric acids decreased. The order in the amount of volatile acids at the beginning was acetic, butyric, propionic and formic acids. Among these acids, acetic acid was significantly increased in its amount during fermentation and the Kimchi fermented at low temperature produced more acetic acid than that fermented at high temperature.