Food fermentation is getting more widely known as health consciousness becomes more popular. Historically, food fermentation has been practiced since the ancient times, but the science of fermentation only dates back as far as 1860.

Pasteurization

The Pasteurization method is widely known as a way to reduce the microbial load of a product, a method invented by Louis Pasteur. The purpose of this method was originally to prevent wine spoilage.Pasteur found that if he heated wine to about 60℃, it would prevent the wine from spoiling but still maintain the sensory profile of the wine. 

This result can be attributed to the fact that the heat would destroy the microorganisms in the wine. However, it would not completely sterilise the product, hence the term "pasteurisation" is used and not the term "sterilisation"

Pasteur and the Birth of Fermentation Science

Coincidentally, Pasteur is also one of the founders of Fermentation Science. One of Pasteur' important works is the debunking of ''spontaneous generation'' which was the belief that microorganisms and even some small animals, would spontaneously generate out of earthly elements. Pasteur disproved this theory by a simple experiment: by observing growth (or the lack of) of a sterilised mixture of yeast, sugar, and water which was fed filtered hot air - and compared that to the same mixture that was exposed to common air. In simple terms: a comparison was made between the same substance, but one lacked yeast. The sterilised mixture failed to exhibit any microbial growth, whereas the one with yeast did. This led to the conclusion that the microbes were introduced rather than spontaneously generated.

Lesson for the Coffee Industry

What can the coffee industry learn from this? Most coffee producers still use "natural" fermentations to produce their coffee. This is similar to a dice roll, because depending on the mixture of microbes present in the fermentation, the end result will be different than the one last time. Since microbes are introduced, they can be used to control the start of fermentations. If microbes can be added at high concentrations, it would give them the advantage to kickstart the fermentation rapidly, compared to the microbes already present. Therefore, the end product will be more consistent.