“Fermenting is not about the cooking”. The social practice of fermenting foods at home.

The objectives set by scientific recommendations regarding sustainable and healthy nutrition prove difficult to achieve, particularly due to the insufficient plant-based shift in diets. Fermentation offers potential pathways to create foods that are desirable while having a low impact on the planet and a positive effect on human health. However, several obstacles remain. This article presents the results of a preliminary study conducted in Sweden. Using a series of interviews (n = 9), we focus on the practice of home fermentation. The results are analyzed through the lens of practice theory and life-course events. Representations around health and ecology, the facilitated acquisition of know-how about fermentation and the perceived easiness and affordability of the process seem to play a role in the recruitment of practitioners of fermentation. Further research is ongoing to explore how this practice of domestic fermenting can be recomposed in different contexts. Understanding the barriers and drivers of the ‘early adopters’ of fermentation could help to provide the general population with the means to have a healthy and sustainable diet.