What causes spoilage?

Answer 1

Yeast is the most common spoilage organism in yogurt. The ironinic part (and this is common in microbiology) is that yogurt seems to thrive on a small amount of yeast, but is easily transformed into "spoiled" when yeast becomes too abundant. Yeast spoilage can be considered a pre and post production spoilage organism, meaning it is there during yogurt fermentation and can grow after. Some post production spoilage organisms, which means they occur after yogurt is made, can be psychotrophs and coliforms. These are both umbrella terms for a type of organism. Both psychotrophs and coliforms only occur due to package damage, or direct microbial contact in processing plant from worker etc. In other words, these two are not common, but occur due to error. Yeast, however is the most common spoilage organism.

Answer 2

Food spoils primarily due to poor storage methods. Food that's stored in a too warm or too moist environment spoils more quickly. Too cool is rarely a problem, but some delicate fruits and vegetables can spoil more quickly in the fridge.

Another problem leading to spoilage is improper processing of canned foods. If the air is not driven out of the storage container or if the food is not heated properly before canning it can spoil in the can.

Check on the suggested storage method for each food item. But remember, food will spoil eventually even if it's stored properly. It's just the natural process of the cells in the food breaking down. Storage methods are only meant to hold that process off as long as possible.

Answer 3

Heat and air spoils cheese