Isolation and screening of lactic acid bacteria and yeast starters from ersho (traditional Ethiopian sourdoughs) and evaluation of their role in bread production

Abstract

Summary Ersho is a well‐known as a source of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts in Ethiopia. However, the utilisation of yeasts and LAB for bread production has not been previously studied. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to screen yeasts and LAB from ersho samples and determination of their bread production efficiency using a laboratory based experiment. Three LAB (1A, 13E, and 55A) and three yeasts (4A, 14D, and 54A) were screened and used to develop sourdough starters (4A13E, 14D55A, 54A1A, and 54A13E). The properties of BS4 bread made with 54A13E sourdough starter had more improved. The protein, TVC (total viable count), TFC (total fungal count), and shelf life of control bread were 13.38%, 3.1, 2.1 log cfu g −1 , and 4 days, respectively. The protein, TVC, TFC, and shelf life of BS4 bread were 15.52%, 2.0, 1.4 log cfu g −1 , and 7 days, respectively. Colour, texture, taste, odour, and overall acceptability mean scores of control bread were 6.6, 6.7, 6.9, 7.1, and 6.9, respectively. Colour, texture, taste, odour, and overall acceptability mean scores of BS4 bread were 8.6, 8.6, 6.4, 8.1, and 7.7, respectively. The results suggest that the use of sourdough starter in place of bakery yeast would be preferable when baking bread.