However, freezing and prolonged frozen storage
influence dough properties by reducing gas retention
and yeast cell viability. Loss of viability of cells upon
freezing has been attributed to intracellular freezing and
increased internal solute concentrations causing effects
such as low pH, dehydration, ionic toxicity, damage to
essential membrane processes, impairment of cytoskeletal
elements and lowering of activities of glycolytic
enzymes (Myers & Attfield, 1999). Although some
microorganisms are killed during freezing, many of
them may survive depending on a number of factors
such as: the type of organism, the rate of freezing and
the composition of substrate being frozen (Table 2).
Bacterial spores are unaffected by freezing and, in general,
Gram-positive rods and cocci are more resistant
than Gram-negative bacteria. At conventional freezing,
the viability of organisms is enhanced as the freezing
rate increases probably due to the diminished contact
time of the susceptible organisms with harmful high
solute concentrations in the unfrozen water. At more
rapid freezing, viability decreases probably due to the
formation of internal ice crystals, which cause destruction
of the cell membranes. Finally, at extremely fast
freezing, ice crystal formation is reduced and replaced
by vitrification (Forsythe & Hayes, 1998). Furthermore,
reports show that freezing dough at low rates (