Czech J. Food Sci., 2015, 33(3):277-282 | DOI: 10.17221/351/2014-CJFS

Saccharomyces cerevisiae and kefir production using waste pomegranate juice, molasses, and wheyFood Technology and Economy, Engineering and Physical Properties

Chryssa Nouska¹, Ioanna Mantzourani¹, Athanasios Alexopoulos¹, Eugenia Bezirtzoglou¹, Argyro Bekatorou², Konstantoula Akrida-Demertzi³, Panagiotis Demertzis³, Stavros Plessas¹

¹ Laboratory of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Hygiene, Faculty of Agriculture Development, Democritus University of Thrace, Orestiada, Greece

² Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

³ Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Technology, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

The growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast) and kefir was studied in substrates containing pomegranate juice, molasses, and cheese whey, at various conditions such as fermentation temperature, air supply, initial sugar concentration, and substrate composition. The results showed that, in the case of kefir, the highest production yield of biomass (0.24 g/g of utilised sugar) and productivity (6.5 g/l/day) was obtained in 40/60 and 20/80% of pomegranate/cheese whey. S. cerevisiae grew easily on all substrates with higher cell mass yields (0.34 g/g) and productivities (13.1 g/l/day) compared to kefir, with the best results obtained at the ratio of 40/60 and 20/80% of pomegranate/molasses. These results are promising regarding the exploitation of non-conventional substrates, such as the juice from discarded pomegranate fruits of a currently significantly increasing market, for microbial biomass production.

Keywords: baker's yeast; lactic acid bacteria; cheese whey; growth; agricultural wastes; fruit

Published: June 30, 2015  Show citation