Does Bubbies Pasteurize Their Products? Say It Ain’t So!

Heather Dessinger

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So, youou’ve fallen in love with a great product, evangelized all your friends about its MUST BUY status, and then your trusty little company gets snapped up by a big corporation. We all know the rest of that story, and it ain’t no fairy tale. So when a reader first mentioned Bubbies might be “lightly pasteurizing” their products, I figured they’d gone the way of so many other brands.

Well, I’m happy to report that Bubbies is still legit. They are flash heating their sauerkraut, but in this case flashing is a good thing. Because otherwise, the jars might explode.

Here’s what Karon over at Bubbies had to say:

Our Pure Kosher Dills, Dill Relish, Pickled Green Tomatoes and Sauerkraut are all naturally fermented and cured in salt water brine using a lacto-fermentation process. These products contain live cultures and the enzymes that form from a natural fermentation.

The Pure Kosher Dills, Dill Relish and Pickled Green Tomatoes are 100% raw; the Sauerkraut in the jars has been flash heated but not pasteurized. This means that the sauerkraut is neither pasteurized nor raw. Bubbies Sauerkraut is heated in a steam bath bottle wash after the product has been sealed in the jar, and this does not kill off all the cultures, but rather just some of them that are producing the bulk of the carbon dioxide gas at that stage of the fermentation.

The hottest of the jars reach 130-140 degrees – no higher; the result is an approximate 10% decrease in culture content vs. a raw sample; but a product that will not continue to give off gas once sealed in the jar. Without the heating our Sauerkraut will continue to ferment in the refrigerator resulting in bulging lids, leaking jars and a big mess within the distribution to retailer to customer chain. (emphasis mine)

Nutrient dense, probiotic rich foods are a VITAL part of our diet (here’s why), but I don’t always have the time to make them by hand. I can live with a 10% decrease for the sake of convenience, how about you?

MORE Good News!

pickled green tomatoes lg

Sorry to go all infomercially on you, but they have Pickled Green Tomatoes, people! Whole Foods, you have been holding out on me!!!

On another note, have you ever wondered what kind of salt they use? Since I had Karon on the line I decided to ask, thinking surely they cut corners and use the cheap stuff. Nope! They use something very similar to Real Salt, which contains the trace minerals we all need. So good for you!

No worries about fluoride, either, because they culture their foods with artesian well water. Three thumbs up!! Hmmm, I seem to have miscalculated there. Can I borrow one of yours?

Well, there you have it. Not exactly investigative reporting, but at least you Bubbies lovers can a little sleep easier tonight! And if you’ve never given them a try, pack some for a weekend picnic! Yummo!

What are YOUR favorite nutrient-dense snacks??

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About HEATHER

Heather is a holistic health educator, herbalist, DIYer, Lyme and mold warrior. Since founding Mommypotamus.com in 2009, Heather has been taking complicated health research and making it easy to understand. She shares tested natural recipes and herbal remedies with millions of naturally minded mamas around the world. 

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73 thoughts on “Does Bubbies Pasteurize Their Products? Say It Ain’t So!”

  1. WHEW!!!! When I saw the title of this post, I panicked a little!!!!!!! I LOOOOOOOOOOVE all of their products and am tickled about the pickled green tomatoes. Gonna have to track some of those down! Great post! Thank you!

    Reply
    • I have a bit of a weird question for you. I have a buddy who works at Whole Foods and he brought home a whole bucket of Bubbie’s pickle brine (after the pickles therein had sold). He gave me a Mason jar of it, because he knows I love it. Both of us drank from the jar, as did his wife, after we spent a day up in the mountains. Now I’ve filled the jar with radishes, cilantro, and red pepper flakes, and poured olive oil over the top of everything as a barrier. The question is, do you think this will ferment at room temperature, or are the microbes from our mouths going to take over and make it all moldy? Should I just leave it in the fridge and let the flavors infuse (but not really ferment)? Curious on your thoughts. Thank you!

      Reply
      • I got this from their website June 2020.

        Do your products contain live cultures?

        Bubbies products are fermented using naturally present and live bacterial cultures,though we don’t test for the amount of live cultures in each jar or serving.

        Reply
    • 5 stars
      I like to 3-4 previously cooked breakfast link sausages and heat them in the microwave with bubbies sauerkraut
      The 2 flavors go together very well
      I heat them together for about 20-25 seconds
      I’m hoping that I get the benefit of a live culture

      Reply
  2. Thank you for this article! I didn’t even know that they had gotten bought out. I am glad that they are still adhering to their quality standards. I love that I can get their products at my local health food store, because face it. I can’t always make my own and it’s worth the month to buy theirs! Can’t wait to give those tomatoes a try!!! Thanks for posting this article. Oh! And, yes! You can borrow both of my thumbs, so now we have four thumbs up! 🙂

    Reply
    • Four thumbs, yay! And although I didn’t exactly spell this out, they haven’t been bought out lately. The business has changed hands a few times, but only because it was a great product that needed someone with business sense to run the company. They’re still pretty small-time, though 🙂

      Reply
      • I have doubts about the 130-140 degree heat only killing 10% of a select group of bacteria. Much as I like Bubbies, I will put my money toward living lactic acid bacteria. There are many other brands making and selling raw unpasteurized sauerkraut which can be found in the refrigerated section. I have yet to see or hear of any of these jars exploding.

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        • Thank you. I had the same thought. There are plenty of raw kraut jars at my local health food store…..and none of them are exploding.

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  3. Awesome! Thanks for doing the investigating! I bought some Bubbies this week and searched all over the jar to see if there was any mention of the flash pasteurization. Oh, and the Sprouts here in Cedar Hill has the green tomatoes. I can bring some to you if you ever want to meet up with our FW playgroup. 🙂

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  4. I panicked when I heard, too. Especially because I had JUST recommended Bubbies to a whole room of people during a class on toddler nutrition!! Oy vey!!

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  5. Oh, I used to eat their tomatoes years ago (as in decades!)…but haven’t been able to find them since. 🙁 Those are amazing!! Love their dills & kraut, too! Those I can find. 🙂

    Reply
    • Still asking in every store I shop, if they will just please carry Bubbies dilled tomatoes. The reply is always the same. Their buyers won’t bring them to the chain. Since “JIM HILLER” sold out to Kroger’s, here in S.E. Michigan, I can not find a store that will bring in anything that I ask-for. There will never be another store like Hiller’s!!! 🙁

      Reply
  6. @Thia – Ohh! Do you have suggestions on how to serve them? I’m a fried green tomato expert, but can’t say I’m sure what to do with pickled ones. Gotta try them, though!

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  7. my hubby is a sauerkraut fiend! i thought he was the only one. our fav nutritious snacks are kefir with wild blueberries, raw trailmix, hard boiled eggs, and kippered herring. he’s on the paleo diet and has introduced me to all sorts of bizarre snacks.

    Reply
    • I LOVE kefir with berries. We add sprouted nuts, too, which I’m not sure is paleo-approved. 🙂 Do you make the herring? And if so, how?

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  8. Phew! I had been hearing all this great stuff about Bubbies and was searching for them at my store but haven’t gotten them yet. Next time I’m at the healthfood store or Whole Foods I will be looking out for them! I need some more fermentation in my life! Glad to hear they haven’t gone to the dark side.

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  9. Thanks for the clarification! We are addicted to Bubbies over here and love the savings we’ve gotten ordering through Azure Standard since January. Green tomatoes, pickles, and even their horseradish is beyond delish!!

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  10. Next time you chat with Karon, could you please ask her WHY her end product tastes so much better than mine? I’m not hatin’ on homemade kraut, but mine never achieves the yumminess that hers does, even when I use Bubbies as a culture.

    Reply
    • LOL!I know they’re expensive, but I think my Harsch crock creates a much tastier end product than the counter method. Haven’t tried those airlock thingy’s, but I’ve heard they work, too. 🙂

      Reply
      • I haven’t heard of a Harsch crock. Will look into that. Thanks! I just started making water-kefir and it is so refreshing for the summertime!

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  11. For people looking for an organic raw sauerkraut that they can order online, I just discovered Wills Valley. (It was sold in little jars in my local health food store at a high price, but was sooooo delicious that I looked online to see if I could find it cheaper.) Bonus points: it’s never heated at all, meaning its probiotic content is higher than Bubbies. I like Bubbies, but I like the taste of Wills Valley even more. They have an online store where you can order it in bulk with reasonable shipping (they send it in vacuum sealed bags). I make my own kefir (from local, raw, organic goats milk -yay!) and just don’t want to take on another fermentation project at home. Here’s their website & they sell other raw fermented products as well: http://www.willsvalley.com/1088695.html

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  12. Yay! (But darn at the same time!) I was just at the store and saw both Eden and Bubbies sauerkraut. I couldn’t find on the jar ANYWHERE where it said it was pasteurized, so I bought the Eden’s. Ugh! Now I find out that Eden DOES pasteurize and Bubbies doesn’t. Oh well. I guess I now know for next time! (By the way, this is just a stand-in while I wait what seems like FOREVER for my Pickl-It sauerkraut to be ready.)

    Thanks for the great info!

    Reply
  13. We love Bubbies here since reading about them on your site a few months back. Do you just eat the pickles and then throw out the liquid? I am wondering if there is something to do with the liquid left in the jar besides drinking it straight that would be of some benefit?

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  14. My 6 month old just grabbed a bubbies dill pickle out of my hand and started eating it!! We haven’t introduced solids yet! He just grabbed it! Is that ok?

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  15. My Whole Foods (in ATL) just started carrying a new brand that is AWESOME. It’s called Farmhouse Cultures and they use a special packaging that basically has an airlock so no pressure buildup and NO heating so it’s totally RAW. We’ve tried three of their flavors, but our favorites are the Classic Caraway and Smoked Jalapeño. I’m hoping our WF will start carrying the one with beets because I’m dying to try it. So good! (And no, I don’t work for them…promise. LOL I think it’s from Cali.) Here’s their website: http://farmhouseculture.com/shop/

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  16. So this is one of those things that, as a fairly new person to the ‘real food’ venture, I hear a lot of talk about- against pasteurized things, and favor for raw milk & the like; but I haven’t yet come across the actual info about why these things are favored or not. I’m sure you have a post on it here somewhere, and I’d love a little point in the right direction so I can start to learn more and understand what is unfavorable about pasteurizing? Just a point of naivete for me (as I guess I don’t exactly know what the process really does) that I’d like to finally be educated on. Thanks!

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  17. I have been ordering raw (they are not heated at all and the lids to bulge sometimes when I order in the Texas heat!) fermented veggies from Rejuvenative Foods for years now. ( http://www.rejuvenative.com ).
    I noted today that they have ketchup with both honey and without (fermented). Our favorites are the finely shredded sauerkraut, pickles and kim-chi. We are a family of 8 doing GAPS right now so Rejuvenative is a lifesaver right now! All their produce is organic and they ferment for 5-7 days. They also have fermented salsa’s. If you order over $150 they include their insulated shipping for free so you and a couple of friends can put together an order to get that. We usually get our order within 3 days – it is shipped on Wednesday and we receive it on Friday most times.

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  18. Thanks for the info. However, and after eating strictly organic for the past 8 years, it just dawned on me: BUBBIES PICKLES ARE NOT ORGANIC!! I don’t just mean they’re not certified, I mean they’re grown with pesticides, fertilizers, insecticides and all the nasty chemicals! 🙁 So much for “all natural”! Why bother to go through the trouble of clean water and pure salt (if indeed it is sea salt.. why won’t the label say so? They can tell us whatever on the phone, yes they did me when I called too) if they’re going to use conventional, chemical-laden pickles! NO good! Think about it! Their label cannot say false stuff because they can get sued. So what does their label NOT say? “organic”; “sea salt” and “pesticide-free”. Voila!

    Reply
    • Well I couldn’t find any info about Bubbies kraut being organic or GMO free on their site and wrote to them. My guess is they are not certified organic which is a big deal for us all but for a leaky gut it is even more critical. Here is a great video that breaks down how glyphosate messes with so many functions in the body and is being linked to many chronic and mental conditions. The researcher is Dr. Stephanie Seneff from MIT.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvo-FtcPCY0

      Reply
  19. Well, this is the company that produces the product making this statement. has it been independently corroborated anywhere?

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  20. Doesn’t anyone realize that these Bubbies products are treated with pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and other toxic chemicals, including glyco phosphate?None of the vegetables they use organic. Why? What kind of healthy product can be obtained if it has live cultures but all kind of dangerous synthetic chemicals? Label does not even say that it is GMO-free! NOT organic, NOT GMO-free, conventionally-grown at best, what good are these products? I am not being provocative but as someone with liver illness and severe MCS, I would really like to understand your logic promoting this product as healthy. I suppose it might be better than eating Cheetos. Key word, might. does anyone here know why the company doesn’t use ORGANIC vegetables?

    Reply
    • okay being that they are in California I just called them.I was told that they are gmo-free and indeed it says that on the label. She she said they dont uise organic because they don’t want to pay for the certification. I was told that thecompany that sells them the vegetables have told them that they use only agricultural sulfur. I am not sure exactly what that is except that sulfur is a nutrient for the soil eand she said nothing else is here so far as her pesticides, or other chemicals. She did nit give me the link I just Googled.
      http://sulvaris.com/markets/sulphur/sulphur-in-agriculture/

      what bothers me is if that is the truth, why doesn’t it say so on the label? That would save so much worry & probably gained some more sales.

      Reply
      • Yeah, GMO-free doesn’t mean anything. And many companies use the excuse that they would be labeled organic if only it didn’t cost so much to get the certification. I don’t buy that from any other company, and I won’t from Bubbie’s. It can also mean that they grow near conventional crops that can contaminate their fields nearby with Monsanto pesticides, glyphosate, etc.
        I like the taste of the product and buy it in a pinch, but I am more wary of Bubbie’s now and will be much, much more diligent in making my own fermented foods.

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  21. Yum, I love Bubbies; I don’t mind that it’s flash pasteurized at all, if it means that it helps with shelf stability. It’s still the best sauerkraut I’ve ever tried!

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  22. Thanks for this blog Heather. I don’t have kids but I continue to go back to your posts for solid straightforward information. I just got off a round of antibiotics (unfortunately due to a nasty infection I got from a hot tub at a luxury vacation rental!) and needed a raw sauerkraut to eat for the probiotics. I have chowed down on Bubbies before, when I had cravings for some really good pickles so i am glad to see your post. Eating some right now and drinking the juice! Thanks again Heather. Keep up the amazing work that you do!

    Reply
  23. If Bubbles is worried about bulging lids or more fermentation? Why aren’t the pickles and tomatoes flash heated? When I looked up how to make my own kraur, everything said that when you are happy with the taste, refrigerate it at that point to stop the fermentation. my kraur has always been fine. If refrigeration stops fermentation, I don’t know why they heat it because their kraur is in the refrigerator shelves at WF. I guess I’ll just plan better and make my own so I don’t have any emergency need to get some. I prefer raw, not heated, kraut.

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  24. I love Bubbies too. But my doctor of natural medicine and nutrition has told me that by law they have to put the types of probiotics found in the food must be shown on the bottle and the amount. All legit fermented foods with probiotics do this. The reason Bubbie doesn’t is bc there aren’t enough actual probiotics to make any significant health benefits. This probably due to flash heating. Which is why my doctor/nutritionist says fermented veggies should always say raw as well…

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  25. I appreciate your positive attitude but I am not buying it! Bubbies never needed flash heating before! The jars no longer state they have live cultures so I think they have gone down in flames in terms of live bacteria. Betrayed once again by big corp. It sucks so bad. they are buying ALL things that are successfully meeting a need and killing it.

    Reply
    • There are a variety of opinions on that. Personally, I once put a jar of Bubbies in my cart while pregnant and ate half of the pickles before I made it to checkout. I’ve never done anything like that before or since!

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  26. Hi, thanks for your work on this topic. I found this today and thought it might add to the discussion.

    “Craig Good, Promoting a healthy relationship with food.
    Answered Oct 26, 2017 ·

    Originally Answered: What temperature does water have to be to kill bacteria?

    The answer is that it depends. Some bacteria are harder to kill than others, and some are extremophiles which can survive absurdly high water temperatures.

    Assuming that you’re asking about pasteurization, and the bacteria which typically concern us in food, it depends on the amount of time and the availability of oxygen.

    You’ve heard about the “danger zone” which caps at about 140º F. Above that temperature most harmful bacteria are killed in a pretty short time. But if you cook Sous-vide, the food sealed in ROP[1] or Reduced Oxygen Packaging, you can pasteurize beef at only 125º, the trick being that it takes a few hours. In other words, pasteurization happens on a curve. Here’s an example: Thermal Death Time Curve of Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. bovis in Artificially Infected Milk.

    With normal oxygen availability the curve is usually pretty short and steep at 140º, which is why that’s recommended for food safety.

    Reply
  27. I have HPylori and have read that kraut helps with gut health. I’m trying Bubbies for the first time. I hope it helps as not much of anything else does. Here’s hoping!
    Thank you

    Reply
  28. 4 stars
    But by “flash heating” and “only killing off 10%” of the live bacteria (which may or may not be false) Bubbie’s may be killing the most important strain(s)- the one(s) that produce the gas they claim can be explosive. There is value even in dead bacteria from fermented strains, as they are still somewhat toxic to some “bad” bacteria in our intestines, but it is still wiser to make our own fermented foods.
    My sauerkraut has a “sparkly” effect on my tongue that is immensely different in my fresh, homemade sauerkraut that Bubbie’s does lack. I am tasting a specific bacterial load that is very different. My own is also stronger on my gut – with Bubbie’s or other commercial “live” sauerkraut, I seem to be able to eat much more with no activity. I use their product in a pinch, but am becoming more averse to buying their product which may not have live bacteria, or has killed the most important, active strains and which is not using certified organic ingredients and can’t say their vegetables haven’t been contaminated from nearby conventional fields using pesticides or glyphosate. Just an opinion.

    I notice the same difference with homemade live yogurt vs. high quality plain yogurt. The “sparkly”, not just tangy taste, is missing from the store bought. I believe I am tasting the difference between a very alive yogurt/ sauerkraut vs. slightly or mostly killed off cultures from flash heating or pasteurization. I know also that different bacterial strains rise and fall throughout the fermentation process and that different strains are present at different times consuming live cultures. I don’t know that I want to miss out on the full spectrum lacking in commercial products, including Bubbie’s, overall.

    Reply