During the Bacteria Days, the project team welcomed Dr. Guohua Zhang at Lesaffre Campus in France. From left to right: Renaud Toussaint, Yeast programs portfolio coordinator, Rober Kemperman, Bacteria programs portfolio coordinator and Steven Zhou, researcher at Shanxi University. Dr Guohua Zhang and Luciana Jimenez, Fermented foods programs portfolio coordinator.
The main aim of this partnership was to collect and analyse at least 100 sourdoughs (Laomian) from 4 regions of China (Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong and Shanxi) and to study their impact on the production of Mantao (steamed bread).
To date, almost 100 yeasts (most of them spontaneous) have been collected and their bacterial and yeast species isolated. This analysis showed that the dominant bacterial species was Fructolactobacillus, followed by Pediococcus pentosaceus, Weissella cibaria and L. plantarum. As for yeasts, 4 species were found to be dominant: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kazachstania humilis, Saccharomycopsis fibuligera and Wickerhamomyces anomalus.
A more in-depth study of the Fructolactobacillus sanfranciscnesis species was carried out and the results of this collaborative work were published in the scientific journal Food Bioscience under the title « Comparative genomics reveals genetic diversity and variation in metabolic traits in Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscenis strains ».
More than 100 bacteria were studied for their potential to produce EPS (exopolysaccharides) and their impact on the final texture of Mantao. Fructolactobacillus sanfranciscnesis was identified as a good candidate.
In particular, bacterial-yeast interaction studies have revealed differences in flavour production in a Mantao when L. plantarum is combined with Saccharomyces cerevisiae compared with the strains alone. These results are very promising, and further publications of scientific articles are already planned with Dr. Guoha Zhang.