active sourdough starter
A fermentation starter which consists of cereal flour and water acidified by the growth of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, and which is maintained in a metabolically active state by repeated backslopping until baking ends it.
Source attestations
| Source | Label / path | Assertions | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOLD | Engineered > Food production > Sourdough |
15 | ORGANISM |
Broader habitats
- fermentation starter
ENVO:03600040 - food production
FOODON:03530206
Also called
- Sauerteig
- Sourdough
- chef
- levain
- mother dough
- sourdough culture
- sourdough starter
Curation
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CONFIRM_UNGROUNDED
Confirmed UNGROUNDED: no ontology term fits this concept. Nearest broader term ENVO:03600040 'fermentation starter' attached as a parent. The committed sourdough report kept this as a real habitat with no defensible identity term: FOODON:03302481 'sourdough bread' is the baked product after the microbial habitat has ended, and the unvendored FoodOn sourdough-starter classes are commodity or facet-bundle terms that over-claim relative to GOLD's Engineered > Food production > Sourdough source. ENVO:03600040 'fermentation starter' is a true broader parent because sourdough is a maintained flour-water starter used to acidify and leaven bread dough. Path: Engineered > Food production > Sourdough (source concept habitatmech:GOLD.3153798c1a)
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DEFINED
Defined as 'active sourdough starter' under ENVO:03600040 'fermentation starter'. Definition authored from the record's committed deep-research report under research/habitats/, read in full; no new paid research was commissioned. Labelled 'active sourdough starter' to avoid colliding with FOODON:03302481 'sourdough bread', which incorrectly claims 'sourdough' as a synonym of the baked product; the requested term is the metabolically active habitat before baking. The report recommends minting because the baked-bread term is a false identity and FoodOn's unvendored sourdough-starter terms have commodity or facet-bundle semantics that over-claim relative to GOLD's Sourdough source. ENVO:03600040 'fermentation starter' is the tightest vendored genus and keeps Sourdough under GOLD's Fermentation starter sibling.