Interesting Warning I Found About Baking Yeast

[Kathy]

I was looking for information on the various types of baking yeast and at the bottom of the page there was this warning.
Thought some of the bakers here might want to take note!

IMPORTANT

WASH HANDS AFTER USING BAKER'S YEAST
People who bake bread and fail to wash their hands afterward are at risk of picking up a yeast infection.
Baker's yeast is a live organism.

[momo]

That's interesting. Maybe that's why I'm all "puffed up"

I've never seen that before but I wash my hands about a hundred times a day anyway. Thanks for the warning!

[bergere]

Thanks for the warning Kathy.
Way back when I used to always make my own bread....and never knew that.

[starfire]

I also wash my hands many times while cooking, this is good information!

[Deleted]

That's the reason I'm a little skiddish about baking. If I had to choose between fresh bread and a yeast infection, well that's why I bought a bread machine!

[Kathy]

manicmommy said:

That's the reason I'm a little skiddish about baking. If I had to choose between fresh bread and a yeast infection, well that's why I bought a bread machine!

Just make sure to wash your hands Before using the bathroom too. ;D

I've been baking all sorts of baked goods with yeast since I was around 8-9 yrs old and to this day have never had a yeast infection. I'm 54 so that's a long time and a lot of baking.
I was always the strange one who even though I wash my hands a lot, I always washed them before using the bathroom as well as after.
I guess it worked-no infections.

[Deleted]

I worked in fast food for my first job. I was given that video about what's on money and what's on other peoples hands and all that. I was my hands constantly. I am also a reformed paper towel freak. I went through at least a $10 bundle every 2 weeks to a month. That fast food training comming back. Now I trust my dish towels but I have also been known to microwave them when feeling particularly paranoid.

[Deleted]

And now a comment from someone who has studied fungal organisms extensively for over a year now. Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast) is NOT a common human parasite. I suppose if you stuffed some in there, you might get a few of them to grow, but it would be a longshot. It's the several Candida strains (particularly C. albicans, although there are about 20 common types), and almost 400 other fungal species, that infect humans.

Kathy, the reason you never got a yeast infection from doing all that baking is not because you washed your hands; it's simply because S. cerevisiae doesn't like living on you.

Now, if you were already overburdened with a fungal load to the point that you were constantly sick and emaciated (like AIDS, although I hate to keep using that example), then you might want to be careful with baker's yeast, too. But 99% of the people who use yeast aren't going to be affected by it at all. In fact, according to one of my microbiology texts, it infects less than 1% of cancer patients through catheterization, which is the most common vector of infection. And they're pretty bad off, immune-system-wise, to begin with.

I wonder where these people are who sit around thinking of new things to try and scare the public with... and who's paying them...

~Lannie

And now that I've said all that, who am I to belittle something that someone else might actually be worried about? If you want to heed that warning, and wash your hands after handling it, that's cool. It's just that I think there are enough really dangerous things in our food to worry about without worrying about something like baker's yeast.

[Deleted]

I have a question! Okay, so bear with me here... If the baking yeast is different than the bad yeast that makes sense, but what about sourdough? Isn't that pretty much whatever yeast is in the air?

[Deleted]

You're right. The thinking behind "sourdough bread is safer" (for those people trying to avoid yeast products) is that the wild yeasts are already in the air and our immune system has figured out a way to handle them. MY opinion is that we've been eating bread with S. cerevisiae for a long time, too, so we can probably handle that as well as any wild yeast. Now, there is some concern about S. cerevisiae being genetically modified (to multiply quicker, etc. thus getting "rapid rise" yeast), and there might be something to that, but I haven't really got into the GMO aspect yet. I have to do one thing at a time, or I'll forget everything! LOL!

The thing to remember is that ALL yeasts are dimorphic, meaning they can change from a harmless budding yeast to the hyphated form (growing a tail and becoming pathogenic). It doesn't happen all the time, but it's possible, so I stay away from eating live yeast (as in beer or wine) because I don't want them in my digestive system still alive and kicking. The yeast in baked goods is killed during baking, so those are dead and won't cause a problem. The mycotoxins produced by S. cerevisiae are alcohol and acetaldehyde. The amount is so small that unless you already had a serious problem, it should be of no concern, so I don't think there's anything wrong with eating something baked with yeast. In moderation, of course.

I've always been worried that sourdough will ALSO have any airborne mold in it as well as the wild yeasts, but hey, if I'm already breathing it, I've already got it, so what's the big deal?

Here's a funny story: A friend of mine has one of those air purifiers made by PionAir that kill all airborne fungal organisms (molds and yeasts), as well as bacteria. So when she makes sourdough bread, nothing happens! She has to put it outside for a while to get it started. I guess it's a good way to know whether your air purifier is working or not, eh?

~Lannie