Vol. 11, Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
Shashikumar JN, Udaykumar Nidoni and Ramachandra CT

Abstract:
The influence of active packaging materials namely, ethanol emitter, oxygen absorber and moisture absorber on microbial characteristics of refined wheat flour (RWF) and whole wheat flour (WWF) bread during storage was investigated. Initial proximate composition of the RWF and WWF breads was determined. The TPC, yeast and moulds and Bacillus spp. of fresh RWF bread and WWF bread were 1.2 × 10⁴ and 1.3 × 10⁴ cfu/g; 1.2 × 10³and 1.3 × 10³ cfu/g; 1.1 × 10⁴ and 1.1 × 10⁴ cfu/g, respectively. The results revealed that the control samples of RWF and WWF bread crossed the safe limit of TPC (7 log cfu/g), yeast and moulds (4 log cfu/g) and Bacillus spp. (5 log cfu/g) on 4^th day, whereas the microbial counts in RWF and WWF bread samples packed in combination of ethanol emitter (E), oxygen absorber (O) and moisture absorber (M) were found within the safe limit even after 12 and 6 days of storage, respectively. The shelf life of RWF bread and WWF bread packaged with active packaging materials enhanced 15 and 4 days, respectively more than the control.