What is Fermentation?
Fermentation is any metabolic process in which microorganism activity create a desirable change in food and beverages, whether its increasing flavor, preserving food stuffs, providing health benefits or more. The wood ferment comes from latin word fervere which means to boil. Ironically, fermentation is possible without heating.
Louis Pasteur in the 19 century used the term fermentation in a narrow sense to describe the changes brought about by yeasts and other microorganisms growing in the absence of air. He also recognized that ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide are not the only products of fermentation.
Products Of Fermentation?
Fermentation products include:
Food Products from milk, fruits, vegetables and meat.
Industrial chemicals such as solvents, acetone, butanol, ethanol, enzymes and amino acids.
Chemicals like vitamins and pharmaceuticals.
Commonly Used Fermentation
Most commonly used fermentation may be classified as
1. Solid state fermentation
2. Submerged fermentation
What happen during Fermentation?
Fermentation occur in the absence of oxygen and in the presence of beneficial microorganisms that obtain their energy through fermentation. If enough sugar is available, some yeast cells such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae prefer fermentation to aerobic respiration even when oxygen is abundant.
During the fermentation process, these beneficial microbes break down sugars and starches into alcohols and acids, making food more nutritious and preserving it so people can store it for longer period of time without spoiling.
Types of Fermentation
1. Alcoholic fermentation
2. Acetic fermentation
3. Lactic fermentation
Alcoholic Fermentation
Alcoholic fermentation also known as ethanol fermentation.
In alcoholic fermentation, one glucose molecule is converted into two ethanol molecules and two carbon dioxide molecules.
Before fermentation take place , one glucose molecule is broken down into two pyruvate molecules. This is known as glycolysis.
Alcoholic fermentation is a biological process which convert sugar such as glucose, fructose and sucrose into cellular energy producing ethanol and carbon dioxide as a side effect.
Ethanol fermentation has many uses, including the production of alcoholic beverages, ethanol fuel and bread making.
Lactic Acid Fermentation
Lactic fermentation is the far most widely used biological preservation technique.
It employed in Dairy industry, Meat industry and Fruit industry.
It is a metabolic process by which glucose and other six carbon sugars are converted to cellular energy and the metabolic lactate.
If oxygen is present in the cell, many organisms will bypass fermentation and undergo cellular respiration; however facultative anaerobic microorganisms will both ferment and undergo respiration in the presence of oxygen.
Lactate dehydrogenase catalyzes the interconversion of pyruvate and lactate with concomitant interconversion of NADH and NAD+
Acetic Fermentation
Acetic acid bacteria are capable of oxidizing ethyl alcohol into acetic acid and water. Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar.
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