Turbid Water
Turbid water is a water which has become cloudy by having earthy material in suspension. The turbidity of water is not an indication that it cannot be used for baking purposes. A turbid water may prove to be a very good hard water which can be used for baking purposes after the suspended matter has been removed by filtration. The water in rivers sometimes becomes turbid when the streams become swollen, due to an onrush of excessive water after heavy rainfalls and during the spring when ice and snow have melted on the mountain sides.
Water is not only a great solvent but also carries bacteria and the spores of some bacteria. Many cases of serious illness, such as typhoid fever, have been caused by people drinking water or partaking of food in which infected water was used. Numerous epidemics of this fever have been traced to water which carried the bacilli. Auche, Flexner, Johnston, Russel, Roussel and Shida, who have done much work on the microscopic examination of water, have found that water carries tubercular bacillus, typhoid bacillus, dysenteriæ bacillus, mesentericus bacillus and other bacilli which contain enzymes that break up the protein bodies into slimy products of decomposition like rope in breads, for instance. Water will also carry yeast spores, yeast, moulds and mould spores which may seriously affect the fermentation of the dough and consequently deteriorate the finished product. Water should, therefore, be tested for bacteria, especially those which have a destructive action on yeast in fermentation and upon bread when baked. One large engineering company has developed an apparatus which destroys bacteria life by allowing the ultra violet rays to pass through the water as it is flowing through the apparatus. Another concern manufactures an apparatus which treats water with ozone. An apparatus which destroys bacteria life should be employed in bakeries, as this will make it possible to secure water free from destructive bacteria. How many times does the baker suspect flour, yeast, malt and other products which he uses, when it may be the unsuspected water which is causing the disruption.