During the last centuries, sauerkraut was one of the major sources for vitamin
C in the diet. From a technological point of view, the vitamin C content is a typical
indicator for good manufacturing practice of sauerkraut, and it is important to stabilize
the taste and the color of the final product as well.34 Bohrer34 investigated the
influence of the different steps in sauerkraut processing on the vitamin C content. It
could be demonstrated that all steps cause different losses in total vitamin C (sum of
ascorbic and dehydro-ascorbic acid). Depending on the quality of the raw material
and the processing parameters, the losses of vitamin C from the fresh cabbage to
canned and pasteurized sauerkraut ranged from 13.2 to 52.7%.
Boskov Hansen et al.35 investigated the effect of lactic acid fermentation of cabbage
on the content and solubility of dietary fibers. In the fermented product, the
content of total dietary fiber was higher than in the original cabbage, which can be