Microbiological and Chemical Quality of Active Dry Yeast

Baker’s yeast is a key baking ingredient and this fascinating food starter has a long history. It was used to raise bread in Egypt from 4000 BC. Its massive introduction in the 19th century, baker’s yeast certainly had a major impact on bread making technology. It is still one of the most important fermentation products based on volume of sales and its use for bread-making which considered as a staple food for large section of world’s population. There is an increasing demand for such product - baker’s yeast - in order to satisfy the needs of over growing population. This necessitates that should be made to ensure their hygienic suitability. This study was, therefore, executed to monitor the microbial content of baker’s yeast taken from retail markets in an attempt to gain some insight into potential microbial related problems associated with these products. Hence, the yeast used must be fully active with a high viable cell count, determining the yeast cell count and the viability were carried out. The last part of this study dealt with the main factors affecting the production of baker’s yeast in molasses medium in order to determine the optimum conditions for yeast production.