Comparative study of commercially available baker’s yeasts to evaluate their gas production ability

Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a biological leavening agent used in wheat breads, pizza dough, pita bread, crackers and many other bakery products. The organism converts the fermentable sugars present in the dough into Carbon dioxide gas and ethanol.CO2 gas acts as a major leavening agent during bread dough processing while small amount of leavening is also contributed by alcohol production during fermentation. An enormous number of strains of S.cerevisiae exist, many of which have already been selected for baking. The potential characteristics of a particular baker’s yeast are determined by the strain of yeast that is selected. The actual characteristics of baker’s yeast, from a particular strain are determined by its composition. Baker’s yeasts belong to the different strains of S. cerevisiae and are available in different forms such as Active Dry yeast, Instant yeast, Cream yeast, compressed yeast and rapid rise yeast etc. After comparing the leavening activity of 6 different commercially available brands of baker’s yeasts i.e. DCL (E.U.),Saf-instant (France), Efkay (U.A.E), Saf-levure (France), Rossmoor and English. The results showed that the brand name as DCL (E.U.) had the highest leavening activity while the brand name Saf-instant (France) had the least leavening activity.