Comparing the Antimicrobial Properties of the Food Additives in Processed Bread to Homemade Bread Without Additives

Abstract

In order to discern the necessity of food additives in processed foods this study will look into the % microorganism growth over a three week time span on both processed bread and homemade bread. The processed bread contains added antimicrobial additives such as, calcium propionate to specifically slow spoilage (Weston Foods, 2020) (Sancho- Madriz, 2003). The homemade bread will only have four ingredients with no added preservatives. Two of each type of bread was sliced into quarters and were either control or treated by being rubbed on the refrigerator handle before being placed into plastic bags. This study was done in three replicates. Observations of the % coverage and qualitative information were taken at a weeks time over the span of three weeks. A Two way ANOVA with replication was conducted and the F-crit was 5.317655063, the F value was 1.021097046 and the P value was 0.3418417645. The interaction F-crit was larger than the F value and the P value was less than the alpha value, therefore the null hypothesis could not be rejected. This signifies that there was no difference found between the processed bread and the homemade bread. This study suggests that the additives do not give the food products any advantage in retarding the spoilage.