Kaslo Sourdough Research Update - May 2025

We haven’t posted a research update since March last year. We haven’t been sitting still on this, so we thought this month would be a good one to catch up! In our last research post, described some of the research that Vi Pham was leading under Dr. Michael Gaenzle at the University of Alberta.

While last year we’d been excitedly planning to have Vi come and visit us in Kaslo, the trip didn’t end up materializing. The logistics didn’t work out later in the year with poor weather, and then as the fall and winter set in, the scheduling didn’t work out either. But in the meantime…

First things first – Great news: PhD Completed for Vi!

We’re very excited to share that Vi Pham recently defended her PhD research under Dr. Gaenzle, and we extend our congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Pham! As you know from our post in March 2024, she undertook several studies that involved our sourdough bacteria.

Open-Access Research Article Published!

For anyone familiar with academic publishing, it can take a while. We’ve known since November last year that Vi has had one of the research articles from the work she was doing focused on our research accepted for publication. And the open-access version is newly available online since last month!

Because we know that not every one of our customers has a PhD in microbiology or food science, here’s our high level takeaways as they relate to our sourdough bacterial culture and what it means:

1. Vi’s research validates that our sourdough bacterial culture is unique – one of the species of bacterial produces carotenoids. Carotenoids are compounds that influence colour in foods and bacteria. Oftentimes, they make colours that are yellow, orange or red. Unsurprisingly, for example, orange carrots are high in carotenoids.
2. This property – that one of the sourdough bacteria in our cultures makes carotenoids – is surprising, and exciting!
3. Even better, however, is that these carotenoids likely contribute to the excellent visual quality of our sourdough pastas. One of the measures of a top-notch pasta is its colour – the deepness of the yellow is highly prized. Some pasta manufacturers rely on artificial colourants to improve the way their pasta looks, but with our sourdough bacteria, we don’t need to!
4. Our fermentation process also seems to involve preventing the breakdown of durum wheat carotenoids when exposed to oxygen (during oxidization). This means that the bacteria not only make carotenoids, but that they are also kept in good shape due to the unique fermentation processes we use.

What does this add up to?

You won’t be surprised to hear us say, well, more research is needed to understand exactly what this means for our sourdough pastas. BUT – we’ll point to some of the positives that are already known about carotenoids. They can help do many good things, including:

• reduce inflammation
• support growth and development
• be good for eye health by protecting from age-related degeneration
• support immune function
• be protective for our skin,
• lower the risk of certain types of cancers,
• support heart health, and,
• support cognitive function.

Of course, we’re eager to find out whether and how each of these benefits of carotenoids potentially shows up from our sourdough pastas. But we’re all sorts of excited for the moment with these new findings about our sourdough pastas.

Kaslo Sourdough is committed to innovation and we’re keen to continue research to gain new insights into the benefits of our sourdough pastas. We’re not just making pasta, we’re transforming it!

The research continues

Given this, you won’t be surprised that we have contributed to another MITACS postdoctoral researher’s funding to continue research through our partnership with Dr. Gaenzle. We’ll share more in an upcoming post!