bake - January 2020 - 18

a global
connection to
sourdough

18

Precise techniques are the foundation of great bread.

anyone in the world and push the
boundaries of science. We want to
take a roll call of all these bacteria."
At t h e 2 0 1 9 I n t e r n a t i o n a l
Symposium on Bread, McKenney
presented the latest results from
the Citizen Science Sourdough
Project and discussed the importance of the world we don't
see  -  the world of microbial
systems - and how it shapes who
we are. In the project, a total of
571 participants from 17 countries
sent in sourdough starters. Many
packages - shipped by air - were
inﬂated like balloons. 
"Having these cultures gives us
the ability to do experiments with
them. We got the DNA sequencing
back two years and curated the
metadata," she said. "We identiﬁed
over 70 types of lactic acid bacteria.
We had all this diversity from across

the globe. When we turned to the
microbes themselves, we took the
ﬁve most common bacteria and the
ﬁve most common yeasts."
S o m e a re s m o o t h . O t h e r s
are "wrinkly," as she described
them. There was a big block of
Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.
Initially it was thought that San
Francisco was the only place where
San Francisco sourdough bread
could be made because the foggy
climate cultivated this speciﬁc type
of yeast. Local bakers, including
Boudin, swore that no one could
reproduce it outside a 50-mile
radius of the city. Eventually
named Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, the bacteria is not unique
to the San Francisco region; it has
since been found in France and
Germany, among other places.
Some bakers still insist that true

Bake Magazine Digital Special Report  1 | Volume 1 | bakemag.com

CREDIT
PHOTOS: JOHN UNREIN

In 2013 Puratos launched the Puratos
Sourdough Library in the Center for
Bread Flavour in Saint-Vith, Belgium.
It gathers an authentic collection of
sourdoughs (of different ﬂavors)
from all over the world. The initiative has provided a real heritage
source for bakers and consumers
around the world. Puratos aims to
preserve the biodiversity of leaven
agents and the know-how on using
sourdough in bakeries. 
The recently opened Puratos
Chicago Innovation Center marks
the international company's sixth in
the United States, and Puratos has
83 innovation centers worldwide.
The company manufactures in 60
countries across the globe and sells
in 100 countries.
"The DNA of who we are is that
we believe in being local," says
Andrew Brimacombe, president
of Puratos USA. "We have great
products that are used the world
over, and we want to be close to
our customers so that we can focus
on local applications."
The goal at all Puratos Innovation
Centers is to feature relatively similar
equipment, so that work can be
consistent. "Our objective is to be
more standardized, which allows
a certain level of repetitiveness,"
Brimacombe says. "When you say
you are an innovation company, you
have got to back it up. This place
makes you want to experiment."
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