Question

Point out a number of positive roles of microorganisms in the production of foods

Describe the canning process and show how contamination may take place at various points in the process.

Describe the role of microbes in the production of dairy products. Explain how such a wide diversity of dairy products is possible.

Answer 1

Importance of microorganisms in food industry -

1. Microorganisms like yeast, are used in brewing industry for fermentation processes like bread making and beer making.

2. Microorganisms like clostridium butyricum is used for the isolation of butyric acid, acetobacter citrii is used for the isolation of Acetic Acid etc.

3. Wheat and soyabean are fermented in the presence of lactobacillus and aspergillus to produce a Japanese traditional food item shoyu.

4. Aspergillus is used in fermentation process to produce soya sauce.

5. Sake is produced by fermenting rice in the presence of aspergillus and saccharomyces.

Role of microbes in the production of dairy products -

1. Some species of Penicillium are used for the production of blue cheese.

2. Microbes like propionibacterium is used for the production of propionic acid and Swiss cheese.

3. Soybean curd is made by fermenting soyabean in the presence of Actinomucor elegans. This is called as sufu in China.

4. Kefir is produced by fermentation of milk by lactobacillus and candida.

5. Buttermilk is produced by fermentation of milk by Streptococcus lactis.

There is a diversity of dairy products because of the following reasons -

1. There are many substrate like cow milk, soya bean milk, almond milk which can be acted upon by microorganisms.

2. There are differences in the microorganisms being used. For example cow milk if fermented with Streptococcus will give a different product as compared to if it is fermented with aspergillus. This is because different microorganisms use a given substrate differently.

3. The temperature and incubation conditions for all the dairy products are different. Incubation at lower and higher temperature makes differences in the flavour of dairy products.

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