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Keshk, What is the growth Rate of Mold Among Fat, Protein, and carbohydrate food
products?
Review Of Literature
Would mold have a faster growth on protein, fat, or carbohydrate food products?
Mold is any of various fungous growths causing decay of organic matter. Carbohydrates
are fruits, vegetables, and breads. Proteins are found in meat, cheese and eggs. Fats are
oils, butter, and sour cream. The purpose of this project is to show the average time foods
remain fresh. This paper is going to examine what factors cause mold growth and which
food product will have the highest growth rate.
There are three main factors that could cause mold growth. The first factor is
moisture content. Molds are mostly water and need foods with high moisture content in
order to stay hydrated (Clegg C.J, Mackean, D.G, 2006). Foods that have reduced water
activity such as jerky, dried fruit, etc. will not mold as quickly (O’Neill, 1999).
The second factor that causes mold growth is temperature. Molds grow through
converting nutrients from other foods into proteins and other molecules (Baskin, 1996).
They do this by excreting enzymes into the food and then absorbing it through their cell
wall. Enzymes are molecules, which help mold break down material and transform it into
nutrients that the mold needs. This process is sensitive to temperature. Warm
temperatures will allow the chemical reaction to happen faster (Shepherd, 1997). The
reason why the chemical reaction would happen faster is because the mold wouldn’t be
under extreme conditions and it could insert enzymes faster into the food and break down
the food and transfer them into nutrients.
The third factor that causes mold growth is the presence of oxygen. Mold requires
oxygen in order to live and reproduce. Mold reproduces by releasing spores into the air.
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Keshk, What is the growth Rate of Mold Among Fat, Protein, and carbohydrate food
products?
When the spores land on a suitable food source, mold begins to grow (FSIS, EPA). Molds
are more of a problem in tropical climate because of humidity as supposed to
environments that are dry (Clegg C.J, Mackean, D.G, 2006). The humidity contains water
vapor. The mold can absorb the water vapor and use it as a water source instead of
looking for a water source.
During this research, Keshk found that preservatives could slow down mold
growth. Preservatives are chemicals used in foods to prevent spoilage. People insert
preservatives into the food so that the food will last longer and not spoil soon.
Preservatives are used in breads and cheese, which may be a reason why; breads and
cheese will have slower growth of mold, because they contain preservatives (Wolf-Hall,
1999).
Carbohydrates are any of a group of chemical compounds, including sugars,
starches, and fiber. Some examples of carbohydrates are fruits, vegetables, breads, etc.
Carbohydrates have a high moisture content and high water content. They also have very
simple molecules inside of them (Jegtvig, 2009). Mold might grow faster on
carbohydrates because they have such a high water content, which molds require.
Proteins are foods that contain amino acids. Some examples of proteins are
cheeses, tofu, eggs, etc. Foods that are in this group contain high amounts of proteins
(CDC, 2009). Mold could possibly grow faster on these foods because they have a lot of
nutrients and protein. Mold would take those nutrients and protein and use them to grow
faster because they have plenty of protein available.
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Keshk, What is the growth Rate of Mold Among Fat, Protein, and carbohydrate food
products?
Fats are any of various organic compounds containing fatty acids. Some examples
are oils, butter, etc (UIE, 2009). Mold might not grow on these foods because instead of
targeting fatty foods it would target foods that that have more nutrients, or have things
that they need like high water content. This is because fats don’t have a lot of protein, or
contain a lot of water, so the mold would target other foods than fats, because other foods
that contain more protein and water would benefit mold the most.
Based upon this research, I hypothesize that carbohydrate food products will have
the fastest growth rate of mold because the three factors that mold requires, carbohydrates
have. First, carbohydrates contain high moisture content. Second and third, carbohydrates
will be in an environment that has the presence of oxygen and is at a moderate
temperature. Also, the mold would be able to insert enzymes into the carbohydrate and
break it down faster because carbohydrates have very simple molecules. Foods that
contain preservatives might have a slow growth rate of mold because the preservatives
would slow the growth of mold. I believe that Carbohydrates have the best chance of
having the fastest growth rate of mold.
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