Bread Mold

Bread Mold

Introduction

Bread mold can be referred to as the microscopic fungi that grow on plant. Bread mold belongs to the category of fungi. This is a separate category from both plants and animals. Since, fungi lack chlorophyll, they cannot get energy directly from the sun. The research has not managed to tell how many species of the fungi are there as so far tens of thousands of them have been discovered. These range up to 300,000 different types of fungi. Molds are different from bacteria in that the former contains many cells whereas the latter consists of just one cell. The structure of most of the molds is threadlike. They possess the fundamental property of spore production like any other fungi. As stated earlier, molds are microscopic. However, some can be seen from the naked eye too. Under the microscope, it has been seen that molds are mushroom shaped. The body of the mold consists of the following parts (Anjum, 2008):

Threadlike roots that grow on the food and lives on it too

Above the roots, they have a stalk that is thicker than the rest of the structure of mold

Spores that grow at the end of the stalks

The molds get their color from the spores. They are so light that they spread with air. The air blows the mold and carries it from one food item to another. The spores of the mold carried by the air land on an item and reside there. They grow a root and stalk and then new spores are born on top of those stalks. This is the process through which the mold spreads (Deshpande, 2011). Hence, if a single loaf is molded in bread then there is a high chance that the entire bread will get molded. The root of the mold is somewhere deep down the food that it is growing on and is difficult to see. The reason why mold is so disliked is that moldy areas are the most favorite places for bacteria to reside. They grow and flourish there.

Types of bread molds

On a very broad level, there are many types of molds. When it comes to bread mold, again there are many types. The most common type of bread mold is the one which looks similar to the threads of cotton and has a very dry texture to look at. The bread molds vary on the basis of their texture, shape and color. For instance, the bread mold called Rhizopus is fuzzy and is often black in color. There is another specie of mold called the Aspergillus. This is less fuzzy than Rhizopus. Another bread mold that is gray in color and also has a tinge of green is the Penicillium. The structure on the inside is grayish and the corners are a while outline (Kung'u, 2005).

The formation process

Bread molds float to land on a food item through the air. Bread is one perfect base area for molds to grow. There is a great deal of ...