MICROCOMPUTER-COUPLED SYSTEM FOR MEASURING THE FERMENTATIVE ACTIVITY OF BAKERS-YEAST

Fermentative activity is the most important quality index of baker's yeast for baking. In this paper, the development of a fermentometer for automatic measurement of the fermentative activity, which allows two samples to be analyzed simultaneously, is described. The CO2 evolved by a certain amount of dough is collected in a evacuated gas chamber filled with saturated ethylene glycol-CaCl2 solution. The gas chamber or measuring chamber is defined as the space above the seal solution level in the gas collection cylinder. The vacuum in the chamber is measured by a Rosemount differential pressure transmitter, while data processing is carried out by a microcomputer. The hardware accuracy of the apparatus is as high as 1.2%. The measuring system has been successfully applied to laboratory-scale quality control investigations for baker's yeast production. Results for fermentative activity of various baker's yeast samples are illustrated. The perspective commercialization of the measuring system is also discussed.