Globalizing kimchi: a longitudinal analysis of digital discourse on culinary, fermentation, and health

While kimchi has gained international recognition as a functional food, the ways in which global audiences reinterpret its cultural and scientific significance remain underexplored. To address this gap, this study examines the long-term development of global kimchi discourse within a digital community from 2019 to 2026. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling on a preprocessed corpus of 29,542 documents from the Reddit r/kimchi community, this study identifies changes in thematic focus over time. The results show that early discussions primarily focused on sensory qualities, basic culinary practices, and gastronomic enjoyment. Over time, the conversation shifted toward more technical topics, including microbial ecology, fermentation control, and safety measures. This study highlights the role of online communities as spaces in which traditional culinary knowledge is collectively interpreted, refined, and adapted to contemporary concerns related to health, safety, and sustainability. By tracing the temporal evolution of kimchi discourse in a digital community, this study provides new insights into the globalization of ethnic foods and underscores the importance of digital platforms in shaping the evolving meanings and knowledge systems surrounding traditional food practices.