History: from brewer’s yeast to sourdough

One of the biggest challenges right now for industrial food production is matching quality with volume and standardized processing. Historically, leavening the bread through the brewer’s yeast was the industry standard, as production was faster and high-performing. However, the final product saw a loss in fragrance and taste, as well as being harder to digest.

Sourdough was made with methods such as adding water and fruit sugars, and then adding this product to the dough as yeast. For the longest time this was the domain of artisan manufacturing, because it was a highly empirical method that relied on the style and method of each individual producer, without an exact knowledge of the bacteria in the sourdough. This was too unstable a process from an industrial perspective as the recipe was difficult to repeat and generally reliant on a single person controlling very changeable parameters.

The identification of the bacteria and micro-organisms in the sourdough made it possible to create an easily repeatable recipe. With the evolution of the technology controlling physical parameters such as times, temperatures and pH, finally sourdough production became possible on an industrial scale.

Large volumes of production can now be automated and managed by non-specialized operators for all the diverse fermentation processes – the black rye bread common in the Northern and Eastern parts of Europe relies on a more acid dough, while the white bread from the South based on soft wheat flour or semolina has a less acid note but a wider bouquet. As well as this, the longevity of products fermented with sourdough meets the need of modern food distribution – making it possible to achieve a large spatial and temporal distance between production and consumption points.

Tanks in stainless steel, easy to clean and equipped with CIP or PIG cleaning system