Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Yet one more reason to thank industrious microbes

This delectable collection comes from
Malley's of Cleveland, Ohio.  And,
closer to home: Suzin L. Chocolatier
Improving some of the world's best chocolate by optimizing a microbial starter culture is sweet research, as reported in December 1,  2010 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.  The article is nicely summarized on the ASM news site (Researchers Select Microbes to Improve Chocolate). Fine chocolate is most definitely the product of careful science and creative culinary art!

Read the full article:
T. Lefeber, M. Janssens, N. Camu, and L. De Vuyst. Kinetic analysis of strains of lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria in cocoa pulp simulation media toward development of a starter culture for cocoa bean fermentation. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 76: 7708-7716.

Food microbiology is well-represented in each issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.  For a general introduction, try Food microbiology / Martin R. Adams and Maurice O. Moss.  Royal Society of Chemistry, 2008.  Human diets were be very boring, indeed, without the myriad types of food we enjoy only through microbial action (not discounting the essential role of microbes in the gut!).

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