Abstract
Microbiology has catalogued many thousands of micro-organisms and all may, in the broadest sense of the term, display fermentative properties. Fermentation may be defined as the process by which micro-organisms propagate themselves utilising their external medium as a source of nutrients. The physical and chemical changes to that medium during fermentation, which we recognise and manipulate in fermented foods, are the result of microbial metabolism. The number and diversity of fermentative processes, that are employed in the generation of food products, may appear to be quite numerous, but these only amount to a small fraction of the microbiological fermentations occurring in the biosphere.
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Abbreviations
- ADP:
-
Adenosine diphosphate
- ATP:
-
Adenosine triphosphate
- DNA:
-
Deoxyribonucleic acid
- Aerobic:
-
Conditions in which oxygen is present
- Anaerobic:
-
Conditions in which oxygen is absent
- Biosynthesis:
-
The synthesis of biological molecules
- Doubling rate:
-
The time in which the number of cells multiplies by a factor of two
- Hydrolysis:
-
Cleavage of chemical bonds by water
- Metabolism:
-
The sum of all the chemical processes in living organisms
- Metabolite:
-
A chemical product of metabolism
- Osmosis:
-
Flow of water between two solutions of differing ionic strength through a semi-permeable membrane
- Proteolysis:
-
Decomposition/hydrolysis of proteins by enzymes
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Gibson, R.M. (1995). Fermentation. In: Beckett, S.T. (eds) Physico-Chemical Aspects of Food Processing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1227-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1227-7_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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