Kimchi, Seafood & Botulism

[JenniferG]

Hello I'm new here and new to fermentation. I got my first batch ever of kimchi fermenting right now -- it's on the 3rd day and starting to get tangy -- it's so delicious!

I added some mixed seafood I bought frozen in a bag from the Asian market. This includes squid, octopus, shrimp, mussel and imitation crab. I believe all of it was either cooked or blanched.

I am concerned about botulism the first couple days before the kimchi is acidic. Or food poisoning in general.

I also used unmodified potato starch + water instead of the pear, in the paste as a low carb alternative (unmodified potato starch is very resistant and generally not digestible by humans but the bacteria love it as food). (I didn't use table sugar nor rice flour in the recipe.) The paste also has plenty of garlic & ginger in it.

The paste has a good amount of fish sauce (1/2 cup for 4.5 lbs of napa cabbage along with carrots, daikon, leek & scallions); also has a a lot of korean pepper flakes.

Did I make a mistake putting the seafood in right from the start? Maybe I should of added it after a couple days, letting the ferment get acidic first?

I thawed out the frozen seafood mix in a bowl and just mixed it right in with the veggies and paste. I didn't salt it first.

[Christopher Weeks]

Welcome to Wild Fermentation!

You should ask your question over in the veggie ferments page and hopefully someone will have an opinion. I'd normally provide a brief answer right here, but I've been vegetarian longer than I've been a fermenter, so I have no experience with that.

[JenniferG]

I can't post anywhere but here. Hoping I can get an answer soon as I am going to taste test it tomorrow (day 5). Hoping I won't throw up (from food poisoning) or get paralyzed (from botulism from the meat).

[Christopher Weeks]

Wow! Sorry about that. When I was approving you, I added you to the bots group instead of the approved users group. Now you can post.