International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 32 (1993) 33-53 Mould Spoilage of Bread: the Problem and Some Solutions J.D. Legan Flour Milling and Baking Research Association, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth, UK, WD3 SSH ABSTRACT Bread is one of the most important staple foods in the world and can be spoiled by many moulds, of which Penicillium species are by far the most common. However, the dominant spoilage flora varies with the type of bread and the storage temperature. Mycotoxigenic moulds.can be isolated from spoiled breads, and many mycotoxins have been produced in inocu- lated breads, but surveys of naturally mouldy breads have yielded only aflatoxins and ochratoxin A in a few samples. Thus, there is little evidence of a risk to public health from mould-spoiled breads; indeed, the absence of evidence of risk in industrialised countries shows that in practice the risk in these countries is very slight. Mould growth in bread can be reduced by a range of techniques including the following: attention to hygiene within the bakery to reduce the opportunities for mould spores to gain access to the product; pasteurisation of bread once packaged, which is practised for some sourdough breads; use of preservatives, the choice being mainly governed by legislation in individual countries; use of novel ingredients with mould- inhibiting properties. Each of these options is briefly discussed. INTRODUCTION Bread in its various forms is one of the most important dietary staples in the world. Consumption of bread has been falling since the end of World War Two in some industrialised countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia as rising incomes have allowed people to eat more 33 International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation 0964-8305/94/S07-00 © 1994 Elsevier Science Limited, England, Printed in Great Britain,34 J.D. Legan expensive foods (Kent, 1983), However, in the UK bread consumption was still 41-5 kg per person in 1990 (Anon., 1992) giving a total UK bread market for 2-3 Mt of bread worth £1994 million (Boyle ef al., 1992). Baur (1991) estimated the Western European bread market, including the UK, to be 22-5 Mt of bread worth 230000 million French francs (about £24 200 million). It is very difficult to assess the losses of bread attributable to moulds. Ingram et al. (1956) reported US and German estimates that 1% or more of total bread production was lost to moulds. A more recent estimate from one bakery in the US was of 5% losses (Killian & Kreuger, 1983), and it would not be surprising if losses were higher still in some tropical countries. Even assuming only 1% losses, moulds could be spoiling over 23000 t of bread worth nearly £20 million in the UK every year. Throughout Western Europe the annual losses could be around 225000 t of bread worth £242 million. WHAT IS BREAD? There are many different types of bread with national and regional varia- tions on basic types as well as a great variety of special breads such as malt loaves, soda breads, milk breads and fruited breads, so some sort of definition is necessary. In the UK bread is defined in legislation (Anon., 1984) which governs what may be labelled and sold as id and what preservatives may be used. However, the statutory definition excludes buns, bunloaves, chappattis, chollas, pitta bread and bread prepared for coeliac sufferers and thus is unsuitable as a general definition. For the purposes of this review, bread will be defined as ‘that food generally recognised as bread prepared from a dough of cereal flour and baked” From a microbiological point of view the most important factor common to different breads is a high moisture content (about 40%) and water activity (about 0-94-0-97), Thus bread is susceptible to attack by moulds and has only a short shelf-life, typically of 3-7 days, unless special steps are taken. In the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada and many other countries, most bread is light in texture, almost exclusively made with wheat flour, with a pH in the region of 5-4 6-0 and leavened by a yeast fermentation. In some other European coun- tries, such as Germany and many Eastern European countries, rye breads made by a sourdough fermentation process are popular. These breads have a much lower pH of 3-5-4-8 and a total acidity (sauergrad) of 20.0— 8-0 ml (Spicher, 1983). The total acidity is the volume in millilitres of 0-1 M NaOH needed to titrate the acid in 10 g of bread to an end-pointMould spoilage of bread 35 with phenolphthalein indicator. This would be equivalent to a lactic acid concentration of 2:2-0:9% if sourdough fermentation produced only lactic acid. This review will focus on the two basic types of bread outlined above How moulds gain access to bread Sliced, wrapped bread is more likely to be spoiled by moulds than unsliced, unwrapped bread. This is because slicing provides moist cut surfaces for moulds to grow on and wrapping prevents moisture loss, hence hastening the equilibration between the moist crumb and the dry crust and allowing a humid atmosphere to form around the loaf. Mould spores, however, are killed by baking (Knight & Menlove, 1961). There fore, for bread to become mouldy it must be contaminated after baking during the cooling, slicing or wrapping operations. It is well known that flour contains substantial numbers of mould spores (Poisson, 1975; Rogers & Hesseltine, 1978; Mislivec et al., 1979; Seiler, 1986; Eyles et al., 1989), as do other dry ingredients, and that flour dust can spread widely throughout the bakery, particularly in small bakeries where separating different processes is more difficult than in large plant bakeries. The spread of flour is reflected in the incidence of mould spores in dusts sampled from different parts of the bakery (Gemeinhard & Bergmann, 1977) Thus, it is clear that airborne distribution of dust and mould spores is likely to give rise to contamination of bread. This has been confirmed in a number of studies. D.A.L. Seiler (unpublished, 1972) found the average mould spore count in the air of six British bakeries to be in the range 85— 2850 m~, with a marked seasonal variation, the counts being higher in the summer months than in the winter. The mould spore counts inside the bakeries were generally slightly lower than those in the outside air. The pattern of mould spore counts in the air was mimicked by the number of mould colonies developing per loaf when the airborne mould counts were high (Fig, 1) but the agreement was poor when the airborne mould count was lower suggesting, a residual level of contamination caused by surfaces and handling within the bakery. Similarly, Spicher (1980) observed mould spore counts in German bakeries from 85 to 5000 m™? in bread storage rooms, contaminating bread at the rate of 1-0-4.0 spores cm™? h”!, though in some production areas the atmospheric spore count was considerably higher (about 9 x 10* spores m™). In Canadian bakeries the airborne mould and yeast count was similar, at 50-2000 m™ (Ooraikul ef a/., 1987). The mould spore count of the air was increased by bakery activities such as cleaning and36 J.D, Legan 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 Colonies per loaf 41000 Airbome mould spores m? 500 Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Month Fig. 1, Relationships between airborne mould spore counts and mould colony counts on bread, Mi, Air outside the bakery; @, air in the bread cooling area; A, colonies forming on bread. (Data from Seiler, D.A.L., unpublished, 1972), production operations (Spicher, 1967, 1980). Starting a bread-mixer can raise the airborne mould count substantially, e.g. from 200 to 1400 spores m”™ (Fig. 2; Seiler, D.A.L., unpublished, 1972), These observations on the relationship between airborne moulds and influences such as the outside air and operations involving activity suggest that moulds on bread will result primarily from mould spores introduced to the bakery from outside, in the air or in ingredients, rather than from 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 Airborne mould spores m3 400 200 Minutes Fig. 2. The effect of starting a bread-mixer on the airborne mould spore count in a bakery. (Data from Seiler, D.A.L., unpublished, 1972),