Q.Name the bacterium used for the commercial production of lactic acid, and explain why lactic acid produced this way is preferred over chemical synthesis for the food industry.

[!TLDR] Lactobacillus produces industrial lactic acid; it's preferred as it's a natural, efficient, less-toxic-by-product route. …

Commercial lactic acid production uses the bacterium Lactobacillus, grown industrially in a scaled-up version of the same fermentation used in curd-making, converting sugars into lactic acid. This microbial fermentation route is generally preferred over chemical synthesis for food applications for several reasons: it produces a naturally derived acid using a food-grade organism already trusted and widely used in the food industry, it typically requires milder reaction conditions than chemical synthesis routes (avoiding harsh reagents or high-energy processes), and it produces the acid with fewer unwanted by-products, making purification for food-grade use simpler and th …

First identify the organism (same one used for curd), then reason about why a 'natural' fermentation route suits the food indus …

Students often only name the organism without explaining the reasoning for why fermentation is preferred -- the 'why' (food-safety, mild con …