Mondo Knows Facts

Sourdough relies on wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria

Lactobacilli sour the dough while wild yeasts generate carbon dioxide bubbles

Sourdough starters harbour a symbiotic culture of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. The bacteria produce lactic and acetic acids that give sourdough its distinctive tangy flavour and lower the pH of the dough. This acidic environment inhibits harmful microbes while allowing acid-tolerant yeasts to thrive and leaven the loaf.

Loaf of sourdough bread cooling
Nutrition, Food Safety & Health ยท CC0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

Food and Agriculture Organization

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

More facts like this

Tags: sourdough, fermentation, bread

Sourdough relies on wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Lactobacilli sour the dough while wild yeasts generate carbon dioxide bubbles. The figure is taken from Food and Agriculture Organization, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a food fact?
Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.