How does fermentation differ from pasteurization? Explain the economic importance of both processes.
Answers
Answer:
In recent years, vessels have been discovered that contain the remains of wine with an age close to 7000 years. It is unclear whether, in ancient times, humans accidentally stumbled across fermented beverages like wine or beer, or was it a product intended as such. What is a fact is that since then, alcoholic beverages have been part of the diet and culture of many of the civilizations that have preceded us. The typical examples of beer and wine are an example of many other drinks resulting from the action of yeasts. In addition to these two beverages, various companies have developed other types of fermented foods and non-alcoholic beverages prepared in a traditional or commercial manner. The climatic conditions, the availability of raw material and the preferences of each region have conditioned and favored the maintenance of some of these products. In addition to the aforementioned traditional alcoholic beverages produced from fruits, berries, or grains, humans use yeast in the production of chemical precursors, global food processing such as coffee and chocolate, or even wastewater processing. Yeast fermentation is not only useful in food manufacturing. Its uses extend to other products of high interest such as the generation of fuel from vegetable sources.
Keywords: yeast, non-Saccharomyces yeast, wine, beer, beverages
1. Introduction
Fermentation is a well-known natural process used by humanity for thousands of years with the fundamental purpose of making alcoholic beverages, as well as bread and by-products. Upon a strictly biochemical point of view, fermentation is a process of central metabolism in which an organism converts a carbohydrate, such as starch or sugar, into an alcohol or an acid. For example, yeast performs fermentation to obtain energy by converting sugar into alcohol. Fermentation processes were spontaneously carried out before the biochemical process was fully understood. In the 1850s and 1860s, the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur became the first scientist to study fermentation, when he demonstrated that this process was performed by living cells. Fermentation processes to produce wines, beers and ciders are traditionally carried out with Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, the most common and commercially available yeast. They are well known for their fermentative behavior and technological characteristics which allow obtaining products of uniform and standard quality. Many other important industrial products are the result of fermentation, such as yogurt, cheese, bread, coffee. Yeasts also play a