If we plan to use yeast or any other starter culture to ferment the dosa/idli batter, is that considered has use of preservatives and not 100% Natural? Will use of these culture affect the shelf life of batter for better or worse ? or will this affect the taste of the final product?
Idli and dosa batter are fermented by a mixture of lactobacteria and wild yeast
So it has lower pH which stabilizes it better than commercial yeast… Further batter can be kept under refrigeration for several days.It can be frozen for 1 month.
If you use commercial yeast ,you will unlikely get tye desired traditional taste of those products…Si its not recommended…but the traditional starter cultures only for such products.
There are no preservatives added, But I read previously in the web that there were studies and research done using essential oils to prolong or stabilize it shelf life .
IIRC…IT was Allyl isothiocyanate(Mustard essential oil) that gives the best performance for such applications without affecting sensory quality of the end product…
please dig that article …using the phrase “mustard essential oil in idlj and dosa…”…Can’t remember the exact paper title …
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Thank you @Roy for additional information. Will take a look at the suggested reading.
Obviously, laws about preservatives differ from country to country, but in France at least I don’t think yeast will be considered a preservative.
Obviously, if you add yeast to the product, you have to put it in the ingredients list on the label. But I’m not sure yeast counts as a preservative.
Yeast itself doesn’t change the shelf life of the product. Only the bilogical reactions do.
Yeast is not considered preservatives by itself but how can you explain the use of mother dough in the sole preparation of Italian pannettone that can last for several months to upto year.They don’t put preservatives there but the fermentative effect of natural yeast seems to create metabolites that extend shelf life that long…