Red tint on top of starter
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone had more details about contaminated starters that turn red-ish on the top.
I've been using the same starter for some pain de campagne for the past three years, and before my move last week, I ended up feeding it with a different flour and tap water instead of the flour I was used to and filtered water. When I opened my tub this week, I found the top of my starter to be of that red-pink tint with an off smell. That was different from say when I neglect it for a few weeks in the fridge.
I understand that some contamination occurred, but I would not be able to say if that was the flour, the water, or something else. Can anyone point to more info about this particular case of contamination? I've read other posts addressing different symptoms of contamination, and I have read about people encountering the same symptoms (red tint), but I am really curious as to what would cause this (scientifically speaking, if you will).
Thanks.
Whole wheat can cast a pinkish hue. So can mold. If the smell is off, it may be mold, which would be a bummer. Try taking some from the bottom of the tub, feed it a few days, and see if it the pink and off smell returns.
Good luck!
Be very sure it's not mold otherwise better safe than sorry
Thanks for the replies.
Having only seen the usual mold (spotty, fuzzy, etc.), I am not expert enough to confirm this was a form of mold (hence my asking what can cause this). One thing I have noticed on other sites, people often referred to the hooch being pink, not the starter.
Before discarding it, I decided to remove all the top and half of the starter, only keeping a little from the bottom. Using the same flour (but with filtered water), I started feeding it, and after a few days, it's super active again. No off smell at all, but a lovely tangy one that one would expect.
I'm gonna keep feeding it for a while and then let it sit without feedings over the weekend to see if that color comes up again. Will update then, and in the meantime, I'll pull out some I had dried out a few years back and try to revive it in a new container.
Talking mold, are there tests one can do to confirm actual mold activity (especially when confronting a potential new type of mold)?
The curiosity bug got me - take a look at this
http://www.safebee.com/home/guide-to-mold-colors-what-they-mean
Saw on a couple sites that pink mold isn't really mold - but bacteria. A starter is a combo of yeast and bacteria, but relatively specific bacteria and yeast. Each creates an environment that the other thrives on, and that is a relatively specific environment - specific to the good bacteria and yeast. This is why a starter can thrive for long periods of time, years, centuries even. The environment created in a starter is good to the good bugs, and hostile to the others. With a different flour, things may have gotten a bit out of balance, thereby creating an environment that could allow other bacteria to take hold. When changing food source, I tend to work the new for in little by little over the course of a few days, at least, to allow everything to get accustomed to the new food. Good thing is, when things get back in balance, the bad bugs should be killed off. So, I wouldn't stop feeding it. That would only delay the return to it's proper balance. Just keep a regular feeding schedule for like a week and go from there. Worst case scenario, create another starter. It's easy enough to do. Good luck!
Sorry for the late follow up--time got in the way.
Thank you very much for that link and for your explanation, Phaz. Really informative.
I did some more experiment with the starter alone (haven't had time to bake in months). In my last post, I had the starter going well again after discarding the top half of my starter and feeding it again. Things went well for a while until I decided to keep it at room temperature without feeding it. After a few days, the red tint was back again. I normally would get some hooch, but like the first time, there was none.
A few weeks ago, I discarded the starter, and I grabbed some dehydrated/frozen starter I had saved in 2015. I fed it the regular flour I was used to, and last week, I stopped feeding it and kept it at room temperature. After a few days, no red tint, only hooch--as expected.
At this point, my assumption would be that the other flour (Robin Hood AP) was contributing to the problem when I switch from the other flour I had (Anita's organic AP). I will do one more test with a portion of the current starter and feed it the Robin Hood flour for a few days and then let it sit to see if the red tint will come up again.
Thank you again, Phaz. I found all this very interesting.
I hope that it is not, but the timing seems too much of a coincidence --- could it be that the contamination in your starter was / is e.coli from one of the bags of Robin Hood AP flour that was recalled?
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2017-04-04/eng/1491342892732/1491342895825
Please double check your flour before experimenting again, and return the bag to the retailer if it turns out that your AP flour is part of the recall.
I hope that it turns out that your flour isn't contaminated with anything dangerous, and that you get a chance to get back to baking happily soon.
Yeah, that worried me too when I read about it. The timing was just odd as well.
I was away for a month when a friend forwarded that info to me. My bag was from a different batch/date/size, and it did not match the recall information--but that still made me nervous. I noticed they recalled other batches after 4/17 (still not matching mine), and I double checked on RH's website. I will discard that flour though as even if it may not be contaminated by that (I used it before and never got sick), I don't like that red tint business...
Thanks for the reminder, though, as I just signed up for the CFIA email updates.