MICROBES IN FOODPRODUCTS

Microbes are used in brewing,wine making,baking,pickling

and other food making process. They are also used to
control fermentation process in production of cultured diary
products such as yogurt and cheese. The cultures also
provide flavour and aroma, and inhibit undesirable
organisms.

CHEESE MAKING PROCESS

Milk is often pasteurised to destroy pathogenic
microorganisms and eliminate spoilage and effects induced
by bacteria. The milk is then inoculated with fermenting
microorganisms and rennet, which promote curdling.
The fermenting microorganisms carry out the anaerobic
conversion of lactose to lactic. The milk protein casein
clumps together and precipitates out of solution this process
is known as curdling or coagulation.Coagulated casein
assumes a solid gel like structure (curd), which traps most of
the fat, bacteria, calcium, phosphate and other particulates.
The remaining liquid contains water, proteins resistant to
acidic and enzymatic denaturation (e.g., antibodies, lactose,
minerals).Enzymes released by bacterial cell also influence
flavour development during ripening. The curd is gently
heated, causing it to shrink. Whey is removed by draining or
dipping. Most cheese is ripened for varying amounts of time
in order to bring about the chemical changes necessary for
transforming fresh curd into a distinctive aged cheese. The
ripening of cheese is influenced by the interaction of
bacteria, enzymes, and physical conditions in the curing
room.

WINE MAKING PROCESS

The process of wine making involves numerous stages
starting with grapes being harvests, taken into winery and
then prepared for fermentation. To start primary
fermentation, a process that typically takes between one or
two weeks, yeast is added which converts the sugar in grape
juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide, which then evaporates
into the atmosphere.
The produced liquid “free wine”, is then pumped into tanks
and pressed to extract remaining wine and juice. Secondary
fermentation is the next step, which is bacterial fermentation
involving the conversion of malic acid to lactic acid. The wine
is transferred to oak barrels for maturation, with further
adjustments to taste and colour being made prior to filtering
and bottling.

CURD MAKING PROCESS

Curds are diary products obtained by coagulating milk in a
process called curdling. The coagulation can be caused by
adding rennet or any other acidic substance such as lemon
juice or vinegar, and then allowing it to sit. Increased acidity
causes the milk proteins to tangle into a solid masses.
Lactobacillus is a bacteria which can convert sugars into lactic
acid by means of fermentation.
When pasteurised milk is heated to a temperature of 30-40
degreecelcius, or even at room temperature or refridgerator
temperature, and a smallamount of old curd or whey added
to it, lactobacillus in that curd convert the lactose into lactic
acid. This way curd is made.

MICROBES IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT

Use in production of chemicals, enzymes ,antibiotics etc.
Many microbes are used for commercial and industrial
production of chemicals, enzymes and other bioactive
molecules. Examples of organic acid produced include Acetic
acid : Produced by the bacterium Acetobacter aceti and other
acetic acid bacteria (AAB) Acetic acid bacteria (AAB) are
bacteria that derive their energy from the oxidation of
ethanol to acetic acid during fermentation. They are Gram-
negative, aerobic, rod-shaped bacteria. They are not to be
confused with the genus Acetobacterium, which are
anaerobic homoacetogenic facultative autotrophs and can
reduce carbon dioxide to produce acetic acid, for example,
Acetobacteriumwoodii . Butyric acid (butanoic acid):
Produced by the bacterium Clostridium butyricum.
Clostridium butyricum is a strictly anaerobic endospore-
forming Gram-positive butyric acid producing bacillus
subsisting by means of fermentation using an intracellularly
accumulated amylopectin-like α-polyglucan (granulose) as a
substrate. It is uncommonly reported as a human pathogen
and widely used as a probiotic in Asia (particularly Japan). C.
butylicum is a soil inhabitant in various parts of the world,
has been cultured from the stool of healthy children and
adults, and is common in soured milk and cheeses. Lactic acid
: Lactobacillus and others commonly called as lactic acid
bacteria (LAB) The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) comprise a clade
of Gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally non-
sporulating, non-respiring rod or cocci that are associated by
their common metabolic and physiological characteristics.
These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and
lactic products, produce lactic acid as the major metabolic
end-product of carbohydrate fermentation. This trait has,
throughout history, linked LAB with food fermentations, as
acidification inhibits the growth of spoilage agents.
Proteinaceous bacteriocins are produced by several LAB
strains and provide an additional hurdle for spoilage and
pathogenic microorganisms. Furthermore, lactic acid and
other metabolic products contribute to the organoleptic and
textural profile of a food item. The industrial importance of
the LAB is further evinced by their generally recognized as
safe (GRAS) status, due to their ubiquitous appearance in
food and their contribution to the healthy microflora of
human mucosal surfaces.
Citric acid : Produced by the fungus Aspergillus niger
.Aspergillus niger is a fungus and one of the most common
species of the genus Aspergillus. It is ubiquitous in soil and is
commonly reported from indoor environments, where its
black colonies can be confused with those of Stachybotrys
(species of which have also been called "black mould").
Antibiotics are chemical substances, which are produced by
some microbes and can kill or retard the growth of other
(disease-causing) microbes. You are familiar with the
commonly used antibiotic Penicillin. Alexander Fleming while
working on Staphylococci bacteria, once observed a mould
growing in one of his unwashed culture plates around which
Staphylococci could not grow. He found out that it was due
to a chemical produced by the mould and he named it
Penicillin after the mould Penicillium notatum. However, its
full potential as an effective antibiotic was established much
later by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey. This antibiotic was
extensively used to treat American soldiers wounded in
World War II. Fleming, Chain and Florey were awarded the
Nobel Prize in 1945, for this discovery.
Microbes are used for preparation of bioactive molecules and
enzymes. Streptokinase produced by the bacterium
Streptococcus and modified by genetic engineering is used as
a clot buster for removing clots from the blood vessels of
patients who have undergone myocardial infarctions leading
to heart attack. Cyclosporin A is a bioactive molecule used as
an immunosuppressive agent in organ transplantation Stains
produced by the yeast Monascuspurpureus is
commercialised as blood cholesterol lowering agents which
acts by competitively inhibiting the enzyme responsible for
synthesis of cholesterol.

MICROBES IN SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT

Microbes play a major role in treating million of gallons of
waste water every day across the globe . Water pollution is
due to presence of particulate matter or presence of
inorganic or organic compounds or because of too many or
non native microorganisms. Sewage treatment consists of
three stages called Primary, Secondary & Tertiary treatment
Primary treatment
In the primary sedimentation stage, sewage flows through
large tanks, commonly called “pre-settling basins”, “primary
sedimentation tanks” or “primary clarifiers". The tanks are
used to settle sludge while grease and oils rise to the surface
and are skimmed off. Primary settling tanks are usually
equipped with mechanically driven scrapers that continually
drive the collected sludge towards a hopper in the base of
the tank where it is pumped to sludge treatment facilities.
Secondary Treatment
Secondary treatment is designed to substantially degrade the
biological content of the sewage which are derived from
human waste, food waste, soaps and detergent. The majority
of municipal plants treat the settled sewage liquor using
aerobic biological processes. To be effective, the biota
requires both oxygen and food to live. The bacteria and
protozoa consume biodegradable soluble organic
contaminants (e.g. sugars, fats, organic short-chain carbon
molecules, etc.) and bind much of the less soluble fractions
into floc. Secondary treatment systems are classified as fixed-
film or suspended-growth systems.
Tertiary Treatment
The purpose of tertiary treatment is to provide a final
treatment stage to further improve the effluent quality
before it is discharged to the receiving environment (sea,
river, lake, wet lands, ground, etc.). More than one tertiary
treatment process may be used at any treatment plant. If
disinfection is practised, it is always the final process. It is
also called “effluent polishing.”
MICROBES IN BIOGAS PLANT
Biogas, naturally occurring gas that is generated by the
breakdown of organic matter by anaerobic bacteria and is
used in energy production. Biogas is primarily composed of
methane gas, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of nitrogen,
hydrogen, and carbon monoxide. Biogas differs from natural
gas in that it is a renewable energy source produced
biologically through anaerobic digestion rather than a fossil
fuel produced by geological processes. Biogas occurs
naturally in compost heaps, as swamp gas, and as a result of
enteric fermentation in cattle and other ruminants. Biogas
produced in anaerobic digesters can be burned to generate
heat or used in combustion engines to produce electricity.
Organic material used to produce biogas industrially includes
animal waste, such as manure and sewage, and municipal
solid waste (MSW) harnessed from landfills.
Animal and plant wastes can be used to produce biogas. They
are processed in anaerobic digesters as a liquid or as a slurry
mixed with water. Anaerobic digesters are generally
composed of a feedstock source holder, a digestion tank, a
biogas recovery unit, and heat exchangers to maintain the
temperature necessary for bacterial digestion. Heat is usually
required in digesters to maintain a constant temperature of
about 35 °C (95 °F) for bacteria to decompose the organic
material into gas. The use of biogas is a green technology
with environmental benefits. Biogas technology enables the
effective use of accumulated animal waste from food
production and of municipal solid waste from urbanization.
The conversion of animal waste into biogas reduces
production of the greenhouse gas methane, as efficient
combustion replaces methane with carbon dioxide.

IMPORTANCE OF MICROBES IN ECOLOGY

One of the most important roles of microbes is breaking
up the complex substances in decaying plants and animals so
that they can be used again by living plants. This involves
microbes as catalysts in a number of natural cycles, among
the most prominent being the nitrogen, and sulfur cycles.
Proteins are the basic stuff of organic tissues, and nitrogen is
an essential element of all proteins. The availability of
nitrogen in forms that plants can use is a basic determinant
of the fertility of soils; the role of microbes in facilitating the
nitrogen cycle is therefore of great importance. When a plant
or animal dies, microbes break up the complex proteins,
polypeptides, and nucleic acids in their bodies and produce
ammonium, ions, nitrates, and nitrites that plants then use to
build their body tissues.
Both bacteria and blue-green algae can fix nitrogen directly
from the atmosphere, but this is less vital to plant
development than the symbiotic relationship between the
bacteria genus Rhizobium and leguminous plants and certain
trees and shrubs. In return for secretions from their host that
encourage their growth and multiplication, Rhizobia fix
nitrogen in nodules of the host plant’s roots, providing
nitrogen in a form usable by the plant.
Microbes also participate in the sulfur cycle, mostly by
breaking up the naturally abundant sulfur compounds in the
soil so that this vital element is available to plants. Sulfur
cycle, is the circulation of sulfur in various forms through
nature. Sulfur occurs in all living matter as a component of
certain amino acids. It is abundant in the soil in proteins and,
through a series of microbial transformations, ends up as
sulfates usable by plants.
Sulfur-containing proteins are degraded into their
constituent amino acids by the action of a variety of soil
organisms. The sulfur of the amino acids is converted to
hydrogen sulfide (H2S) by another series of soil microbes. In
the presence of oxygen, H2S is converted to sulfur and then
to sulfate by sulfur bacteria. Eventually the sulfate becomes
H2S
CONCLUSION
Microbes are a very important component of life on earth.
Not all microbes are pathogenic. Many microbes are very
useful to human beings. We use microbes and microbially
derived products almost every day. Microbes are essential in
processes like Wine making and Cheese making. Bacteria
called lactic acid bacteria (LAB) grow in milk to convert it into
curd. The dough, which is used to make bread, is fermented
by yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Certain dishes such
as idli and dosa, are made from dough fermented by
microbes. Bacteria and fungi are used to impart particular
texture, taste and flavour to cheese.
Many microbes are used for commercial and industrial
production of chemicals, enzymes and other bioactive
molecules .Antibiotics like penicillins produced by useful
microbes are used to kill disease-causing harmful microbes.
For more than a hundred years, microbes are being used to
treat sewage (waste water) by the process of activated
sludge formation and this helps in recycling of water in
nature. Microorganisms are used in fermentation to produce
ethanol, and in biogas reactors to produce methane
Methanogens produce methane (biogas) while degrading
plant waste. Biogas produced by microbes is used as a source
of energy in rural areas. It is clear from the diverse uses
human beings have put microbes to that they play an
important role in the welfare of human society.