Microbial food cultures

Microbial food cultures are live bacteria, yeasts or moulds used in food production. Microbial food cultures carry out the fermentation process in foodstuffs. Used by humans since the Neolithic period (around 10 000 years BC) fermentation helps to preserve perishable foods and to improve their nutritional and organoleptic qualities (in this case, taste, sight, smell, touch). As of 1995, fermented food represented between one quarter and one third of food consumed in Central Europe. More than 260 different species of microbial food culture are identified and described for their beneficial use in fermented food products globally, showing the importance of their use. The scientific rationale of the function of microbes in fermentation started to be built with the discoveries of Louis Pasteur in the second half of the 19th century. Extensive scientific study continues to characterize microbial food cultures traditionally used in food fermentation taxonomically, physiologically, biochemically and genetically. This allows better understanding and improvement of traditional food processing and opens up new fields of applications. Microorganisms are the earliest form of life on earth, first evolving more than three billion years ago. Our ancestors discovered how to harness the power of microorganisms to make new foods, even if they did not know the science behind what they were doing. Milestones 1665—Robert Hooke and Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek first observe and describe microorganisms. 1857–1876—Louis Pasteur proves the function of microorganisms in lactic and alcoholic fermentation. 1881—Emil Christian Hansen isolates Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, a pure yeast culture, which is today widely used in brewing of lager beers. 1889–1896—Herbert William Conn, Vilhelm Storch and Hermann Weigmann demonstrate that bacteria are responsible for the acidification of milk and of cream. 1897—Eduard von Freudenreich isolates Lactobacillus brevis. 1919—Sigurd Orla-Jensen classifies lactic acid bacteria on the basis of the bacteria's physiological response patterns.