Pickled Cucumber Production for Hypertension Patients

Hypertension is considered as the most important modifiable risk factor for life-threatening diseases and diet can play an important role in its prevention and treatment. Low-sodium diets for hypertension have been prescribed frequently. Patients restricted to low sodium diet for long time, have often rejected large portions of their food, resulting that to weight loss, medical problems and in some cases, symptoms of malnutrition develop. The objective of this work was to carry out laboratory scale cucumber fermentations in brine containing both CaCl2 and KCl, separately, as the only salt, as well as citric acid and acetic acid separately without any salt to produce pickled cucumber suitable for hypertension patients. The produced cucumber pickles were examined for chemical composition, Na, K, Ca and sensory properties. The obtained results indicated that manufacturers could make several acceptable pickle products suitable for hypertension patients.