Did you know that sourdough bread resists mold? I didn’t know that. But that may be because I haven’t had the luxury of letting a decent loaf (a honest-to-goodness loaf) of sourdough bread sit out to waste away since leaving the Golden State. I’m not even able to splurge on a Sourdough Jack from Jack in the Box because the fast food chain isn’t found in this region. I'm not bitter, I'm just hungry.

Fun Fact: The mascot of the San Francisco 49ers is named “Sourdough Sam” as a nod to the bread’s Gold Rush era heritage in Northern California.

The football team’s website says Samster’s favorite food is garlic fries. Shouldn’t his favorite food be sourdough bread? I’ve heard it said that you can make sandwiches with the stuff. No one could hate a sandwich.

During the sourdough baking process, that mythical and strange set of steps that begins with an unconventional starter, bacteria convert the linoleic acid in the bread flour to a compound that has powerful antifungal activity.

Michael Gaenzle of the University of Alberta, Edmonton said “Genuine sourdough bread differs from ordinary bread in having an extra fermentation step, over and above yeast fermentation. This step is mediated by lactic acid bacteria, typically of the genus Lactobacillus.”

Gaenzle and his colleagues studied linoleic acid, lactobacilli, and pinpointed what was giving the bread it’s mold-resisting power- L. hammesii  and a second antifungal fatty acid produced by cereal enzymes contributed as well.

There are two major benefits from this bread research: better tasting bread due to the elimination of preservatives -not that sourdough bread with its “distinct and richer flavor compared to bread produced with yeast only" needed any help in the taste category and  “novel tools to control fungi in malting and plant production, via treatment of seeds with the anti-fungal fatty acids.” Which I think is a fancy way of saying scientists can stop mold before it even starts.

Researchers concluded: “The use of 20% sourdough fermented with L. hammesii, or the use of 0.15% coriolic acid in breadmaking increased the mold-free shelf life by 2 — 3 days or from 2 to more than 6 days, respectively.”

That’s practically a whole week’s worth of extended shelf life!

We all know that if companies can increase the shelf life of food (and without using unhealthy preservatives) it can eliminate waste in several ways: the energy, water, and other associated resources used in production and at the consumer level because stores and households will throw less food away. I told you sourdough bread was magical.