What if I were to tell you that every time you had consumed bread from a bakery, you were also consuming alcohol as well?
Although it is not recent news, a common way for bakers to create loaves of bread is to add yeast into their dough to make it rise. This idea comes from a famous french chemist named Louis Pasteur, who discovered the process of fermentation in 1857. In this process however, ethanol (the type of alcohol found in beer and other alcoholic beverages) is produced as a product. Is bread really safe to eat without the feeling of intoxication?
The short answer: Yes.
The process of fermentation involves converting one molecule of glucose into two molecules of both ethanol and carbon dioxide in the absence of oxygen.
The Process of Ethanol Fermentation
According to chemical engineer/data scientist Josh Velson,
“However, during the baking process, most of the alcohol in the dough evaporates into the atmosphere. This is basically the same thing that happens to much of the water in the dough as well.”
So no worries, bread is perfectly fine to eat. If bread is one of your favourite things to eat like me, this feeling of relief is the best thing since sliced bread.
