Cereal Chem 69:20-27   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Influence of Starter Cultures Consisting of Lactic Acid Bacteria and Yeasts on the Performance of a Continuous Sourdough Fermenter.

A. Vollmar and F. Meuser. Copyright 1992 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The performance of a newly developed, continuously operating sourdough fermentation system is dependent on the attainable metabolic activity of the microorganisms under the processing conditions. Of eight pure cultures of lactic acid bacteria, one with Lactobacillus brevis ssp. Lindneri produced the best results, that is, a high, uniform formation of acids and a balanced proportion of acetic acid (23-33%) to total acid. Similarly good results were obtained with L. fructivorans. The performance of the fermenter can be improved and stabilized by adding starting cultures of yeasts isolated from sourdoughs. In the given fermentation time, fermenting sourdoughs with added yeast showed a significantly higher acid formation than did those without (P greater than 95%) added yeast. The accelerated acid formation was due almost entirely to additional production of acetic acid. This effect was independent of the strain of yeast. Yeast additions above a certain level had no further influence.