Cereal Chem 59:23 - 26. | VIEW
ARTICLE
Microbiology of Cracker Sponge Fermentation.
M. L. Fields, R. C. Hoseney, and E. Varriano- Marston. Copyright 1982 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc.
Lactic acid bacteria in commercial yeast and wheat flour were easily isolated from enriched cultures. The physical structure of dough (ie, limited water) impaired the physiological activities of the microflora, as shown by comparing plate counts of dough and of flour-water slurries. Pure culture yeast, added to dough, did not lower the pH below that of the indigenous microflora of the flour. Adding large numbers of lactic acid bacteria isolated from flour rapidly lowered the pH of the dough. Lactic acid bacteria were dominant in doughs and in flour-water slurries with added yeast. Possibly because of the competition for fermentable carbohydrate or the accumulation of toxic waste products, the number of yeast cells declined in dough and in flour-water slurries as a result of fermentation. Coliforms and proteolytic bacteria did not play a major role in the fermentation.