wunder beta🫙 The Science of Fermentation
How invisible microbes turn milk, dough, and cabbage into food.
What you’ll learn
- Explain anaerobic lactic acid fermentation and how it preserves food.LAB such as Lactobacillus produce lactic acid without oxygen, souring and protecting foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi.
- Describe alcoholic fermentation by yeast and microbial partnerships.Yeast turns glucose into ethanol and CO2, leavening bread and making alcohol; sourdough pairs yeast with lactic acid bacteria.
Questions this course answers
Microbial fermentation is best described as which kind of biotransformation?
Microbial fermentation is an anaerobic biotransformation in which microbes convert sugars and other compounds into valuable products such as organic acids, alcohols, and gases.
Which genera are examples of lactic acid bacteria (LAB)?
Lactic acid bacteria include gram-positive genera such as Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, and Streptococcus, which produce lactic acid from sugars.
How do lactic acid bacteria help preserve food?
LAB produce lactic acid that creates an acidic environment, preventing the growth of harmful, spoilage-causing bacteria.
What distinguishes heterofermentative from homofermentative LAB?
Homofermentative strains make almost only lactic acid; heterofermentative strains also generate acetic acid, ethanol, and carbon dioxide.
What does yeast produce when it breaks down glucose in alcoholic fermentation?
In alcoholic fermentation, yeast breaks glucose into ethanol and carbon dioxide; one glucose molecule yields two ethanol and two CO2 molecules.
Which two types of microbes make sourdough bread?
Sourdough is formed from two microbes working together: lactic acid bacteria, which give tang, and yeast, which produces the carbon dioxide that makes it rise.
Grounded in trusted sources
- OpenStax, 'Microbiology,' Section 8.4 Fermentation (openstax.org)
- Study.com, 'Lactic Acid Fermentation in Food: Overview, Bacteria & Products' (study.com)
- IntechOpen, 'Microbial Fermentation: From Food Tradition to Cutting-Edge Biotechnology' (intechopen.com)
- NCBI/PMC, 'Role of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Food Preservation and Safety' (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9099756)
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