## 4 Discussion  
Mold spoilage in bread represents an ongoing safety and quality concern for various food industries. The use of lactobacilli as biocontrol agents in the sourdough-bread-making process has been extensively assessed and reported to confer shelf-life prolongation and a delay in the staling of baked products, in a strain-specific manner [20]. However, the \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Volatile Organic Compounds**} & **MIC (\(\upmu\)L/mL of Headspace)** \\ \hline \hline Alcohols & \\ \hline Ethanol & - \\ \hline Isoamyl alcohol & 0.97 (0.00) \({}^{\text{e}}\) \\ \hline
2,4-di-tert-butyl-phenol & 0.04 (0.00) \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline Aldehydes & \\ \hline Octanal & 0.42 (0.02) \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ \hline Nonanal & 0.34 (0.00) \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ \hline Benzaldehyde & 0.06 (0.00) \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline Acids & \\ \hline
3-methyl-butanoic acid & 0.67 (0.03) \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ \hline Esters & \\ \hline Isoamyl acetate & 2.15 (0.00) \({}^{\text{g}}\) \\ \hline Ethyl acetate & 2.01 (0.01) \({}^{\text{f}}\) \\ \hline Butanoic acid-ethyl ester & 5.14 (0.03) \({}^{\text{i}}\) \\ \hline Acetic acid-butyl ester & 4.93 (0.03) \({}^{\text{h}}\) \\ \hline Ethyl caprylate & 6.24 (0.00) \({}^{\text{i}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Antimold activity of pure VOCs against _P. chrysogenium_. application of yeasts as antinold agents for the production of bakery products has been only marginally studied [16; 21]. The ability of _W. anomalous_ strains to thrive in NaCl-rich mediums and at a wide range of initial pH values has already been reported [22; 23]. The NaCl and pH-tolerant profile of this species was verified in our study as well. The antinold activity was attributed to compounds of a non-protein nature [17]; thus, the production of killer toxins was excluded and the production of VOCs was further considered. Many studies have correlated the inhibitory activity of _W. anomalous_ strains with the production of VOCs [9; 13]. However, only a few of them reported VOCs identification. In our study, the most abundant compounds produced by yeasts were ethyl acetate, ethanol and isoamyl alcohol, while the stable presence of isoamyl acetate was detected as well. In agreement with our observations, a recent study by [PERSON] et al. [10] reported that the biocontrol activity of _W. anomalous_ strains against five phytopathogenic fungi was mainly attributed to the synthesis of VOCs, with isoamyl alcohol and isoamyl acetate being the most abundant. In addition, [PERSON] et al. [12] demonstrated that VOCs synthesized by _W. anomalous_ exhibited the highest inhibitory activity against _Botrytis cinerea_ (87% total inhibition), while _P. digitatum_ was suppressed only at 1.5%. Consistent with our results, the main VOC produced by _W. anomalous_ was ethyl acetate. In another study, by [PERSON] et al. [11], the biocontrol activity of a _W. anomalous_ strain, WRL-076, was attributed to 2-phenylethylanol, which further suppressed the spore germination and aflatoxin production of _Aspergillus flavus_. In an earlier study by [PERSON] et al. [24], _W. anomalous_ strains, grown both on malt yeast glucose peptone and coffee agar, were found to inhibit the growth of _A. ochracous_ and concomitant ochratoxin A production. Regarding VOCs production during coffee processing, the main esters identified with GC-MS were ethyl acetate and isobutyl acetate, while the abundance of isoamyl alcohol was also reported [24]. It has been proposed that the biocontrol activity of VOCs against mold species decreases, according to the following order: organic acid > aldehyde > alcohol > ether > ketone > ester > lactone [25]. However, this is not always the rule, since there are cases opposing the aforementioned statement [26; 27]. This was similar to our study, where the MIC of 3-methyl-butanoic acid was higher than the respective of 2_A_-di-tert-butyl-phenol and benzaldehyde, which required only 0.04 and 0.06 \(\upmu\)L/mL, respectively.