Within the broad spectrum of the food industry, one of the most consumed daily articles is bread. Bakeries and baking factories must put onto the market safe products for consumers.
Today, both industrial as well as traditional bakeries use additives to control the growth of bacteria and molds in final products, but to achieve complete efficiency it is necessary to make a good selection of raw materials and adhere to hygiene standards during preparation. The resistant forms of some bacteria, and the fact that the effectiveness of cooking, to eliminate microorganisms depends on the microbial load of the product before entering the bakery oven, make order and hygiene in bakeries the only resources to counter contamination. Therefore the prior control of raw materials and their control during the preparation process is vital to obtain a final product free of microorganisms.
After baking, bread, muffins, cakes, etc.. make an ideal culture medium for the development of spores present in the air, so it is vitally important to treat this type of product in its final format. This kind of contamination is more likely to happen in spring and early summer and in places of high dust or flour concentration.
Bread fungi are aerobic and vegetative microorganisms, meaning they need oxygen to reproduce themselves, so it is common for fungi to proliferate first in the crust, which is the area most exposed to air inside the package.
For the identification of all these pathogens of importance in the safety of the bakery products industry, there are several culture media:
- Potato Dextrose Agar (Eu. Pharm): identification, cultivation and enumeration of yeasts and molds. The content of potato (a source of starch) and the low pH favor the growth of those yeasts and molds.
- Rose Bengal Agar + Chloramphenicol + Dichloran (DRBC Agar): selective medium for the enumeration of yeasts and molds in food. Bengal rose is a selective agent that inhibits the growth of bacteria and limits the size and height of faster-growing molds, allowing for the development of other slower-growing fungi.
- OGA Medium (Oxytetracycline Glucose Agar): enumeration and selection of yeasts and molds in food samples.
- Bacillus Cereus Selective Agar Base: enumeration and isolation of Bacillus cereus in food, according to MOSSEL.