Chinese mummies helped solve the mystery of kefir's origin

It is important to note that previously it was believed that the birthplace of kefir was exclusively the North Caucasus, but the results of the new work showed that this product was also produced in ancient China.

The mummies found in the burial site of Xiaohe in the Tarim River basin date back to the Bronze Age, their age is estimated at 3300-3600 years. Around the neck of one of the mummies, which belonged to a young woman, archaeologists found pieces of a substance that initially could not be accurately identified.

However, genetic analysis by a team of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences confirmed that it was the remains of kefir cheese.

The researchers took cheese samples from three mummies and were able to isolate fragments of ancient DNA. They found that milk from cows and goats was used to make the cheese, but not mixed, as was practised in other regions. Also found in the samples was DNA from the bacteria Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and the yeast Pichia kudriavzevii, which are found in modern kefir fungi and turn milk into kefir and kefir cheese.

These findings provide new evidence for two independent distribution routes for kefir: from the North Caucasus to Europe and from the Xinjiang region to East Asia. Until now, kefir and kefir products were thought to have originated exclusively in the Caucasus. But genetic analysis of the ancient bacteria showed that they are closer to Tibetan strains, indicating the existence of another centre of kefir culture.

"Our study proves that kefir culture has existed in China since the Bronze Age," said one of the paper's authors, scientist Qiaomei Fu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.