Starter culture

Starter cultures (also known as starters for short ) are special, based on specific properties, selected, reproductive microorganisms that are used in fermentative processes in food production. They can be in pure culture or in controlled mixed cultures. They are usually added to food in concentrations higher than one million CFU per gram in order to improve its appearance, taste or shelf life. Starter cultures are traded in the form of suspensions or freeze-dried powders. Lactic acid bacteria or yeasts are mostly used, but mixtures of both groups are also used - such as with sourdough or kefir . The term “starter culture” is inspired by the fact that these microorganisms initiate the process of change in the food.

About 35 percent of our food is made with the help of starter cultures. Examples of foods produced in this way are baked goods, sauerkraut , yoghurt and sour milk products, cheese, raw sausage , beer or wine . In the dairy industry, bacterial starters are called acid starters .

literature

• Wilhelm Heinrich Holzapfel (ed.): Lexicon of food microbiology and hygiene. S. 293, Behr Verlag, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-89947-048-6