Lactic fermentation is an ancient method used by many peoples throughout the world for preserving vegetables. Even before cultivating vegetables, man fermented wild plants.
Lacto fermented cabbage was already known in China some six thousand years ago and served as a staple food for those who built the Great Wall of China. Today the dish known as "sauerkraut" is still the German national dish.
Many peoples, in particular the Koreans, the Japanese and the Northern and Central Europeans, have used lactic fermentation as a practical method of preservation, as well as for the particular flavour the process gives to foods.
With the development of pasteurization and freezing as methods of preservation, this more traditional technique has fallen into disuse in most "developed" countries.
Today, however, the medical establishment is faced with a new and worrisome phenemenon, as an increasing number
of bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Alternative solutions are being sought for the prevention and the
treatment of infectious diseases. Raw fermented foods are empirically known as an important factor contributing
to health and disease prevention, and researchers, throughout the world are now looking into the scientific basis for
the therapeutic qualities of fermented foods. See Health aspects.