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Natural Sciences and Technology. Illustration source: PEXELS/Anthony
Currently, there is a lot of food that easily expires circulating among the public, especially in shops and basic food stalls both in cities and villages. Bread is a food that easily expires. One of the breads that is often consumed by people is white bread. This white bread is often used as a breakfast menu and a substitute for rice by some people in Indonesia. Therefore, it is not surprising that white bread is produced in large quantities by bread processing factories because many consumers buy large quantities of white bread to use as food supplies at home.
However, without us realizing that white bread lasts no more than a week or even only three days, that’s why white bread easily expires, marked by changes in color, the appearance of black spots and the growth of mold. This indicates that the bread is no longer suitable for consumption. Most people don’t really pay attention to the appearance of the white bread they consume, they are more concerned with the affordable price than the expiry date and condition of the bread. This habit often occurs and can cause many illnesses for consumers.
Black spots on white bread can be caused by the growth of mold on the bread. Fungi, also known as fungi, are microorganisms that belong to the eukaryotic domain. They are heterotrophs, that is, they absorb food from their environment and digest their food outside their cells. Fungi can be found in almost all ecological niches. Fungi are microorganisms whose somatic structure is composed of hyphae which have mycelium to make up their body (body of fungus). The general characteristics of fungi are that they produce spores in the form of conidiospores, do not have chlorophyll, are a monophyletic group, that is, they originate/develop from the same parent, and their cell walls are composed of chitin.
Fungi have a general term, namely fungi, which is generally equivalent to fungi, molds and yeasts. Fungi are also known as mushrooms, namely fruit-bodied mushrooms such as straw mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, and also called molds, namely fungi whose fruiting body mycelium is invisible to the naked eye, such as tempeh mold, etc. In fact, fungi have a role that is no less important than other plants, namely as a decomposer of organic material, as a bioremediation agent for pollutants, and as an indicator of pollution, namely lichen and mycorrhiza, and plays a very important role in the food sector.
One of the roles of fungi is in making food such as bread, which in making bread requires Saccharomyces beer in bread-making fermentation which involves the rectification of sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. The resulting carbon dioxide gas will later become bubbles in the bread dough, thereby increasing the volume or as a bread improver which will process the substrate containing glucose and carry out an anaerobic reaction which produces gas, which is then trapped in the bread and forms bread with a light and aerated texture. .
However, the growth of other types of fungi also has a negative role in bread, namely by the growth of fungi in bread that has passed its expiry date. The growth of fungi on bread can affect the quality of the bread, this occurs due to certain factors that cause moldy bread such as temperature, humidity, dryness, lack or excess of oxygen, light, time, and the emergence of several microorganisms such as (bacteria, yeast, algae, protozoa and others) that grow on the bread. The factor of mold growth on bread can also be caused at the post-baking stage, where contamination occurs such as mold contamination from the air around the baking area, contamination from workers’ unsterilized hands which also causes the bread to grow quickly with fungus. Improper packaging of bread and long storage are factors that cause fungi to grow on the bread.
In general, bread can only last for 4 days. If the storage area is not sterile and the storage method is not done correctly, the bread will very quickly become contaminated by microorganisms such as fungi. Microorganisms that grow on bread are an early sign of damage to the bread, which usually grows with microorganisms such as mold. Mold that often grows on bread is Rhizopus stonolifer, Mocor sp. , and several types of dangerous fungi such as Penicillium sp., Geotrichum sp., and Aspergillus sp.
Mold growth is very difficult to prevent. Mold growth can result in physical and chemical changes to bread, such as partial or complete color changes, changes in texture, aroma and taste, making it no longer suitable for consumption. Mold that grows on bread has the potential to produce mitoxins under certain conditions or during storage. Mitoxins are secondary metabolic products in fungi that can contaminate food and can cause poisoning in humans.
Aspergillus sp. is a species of contaminant fungus that is cosmopolitan in nature, where this fungus is able to grow and spread widely easily because fungal spores can be spread through the air, so Aspergillus sp. easy to grow in food ingredients or agricultural production. There are many species of Aspergillus that grow on bread, but there are several species that are better known because they are often found on bread, such as Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger. Aspergillus flavus This type of mushroom is the most dangerous if consumed, because this species of mushroom can cause disease Aspergillosis and is one of the fungi that produces the most aflatoxins. Symptoms that appear are cough, inflammation, shortness of breath, chest and joint pain, chills, headache and fever. Aspergillus niger is a fungus that is capable of producing citric acid, so this fungus is used in the fermentation process because it is not able to produce dangerous mycotoxins, but can produce phenolic compounds which are commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry.
To learn more about the morphological structure, shape, color, special characteristics of fungi Aspergillus sp. Special methods are needed to identify it, namely pure culture methods, fungal isolation, fungal purification, etc. And requires special tools such as a light microscope (stereo) to help us observe fungi Aspergillus sp.
Bibliography
2024-01-02 15:15:00
#Aspergillus #Parasitic #Fungi #Moldy #White #Bread #Kompasiana.com #Kompasiana.com
