Assessment of hydrolysis of cheese whey and use of hydrolysate for bioproduction of carotenoids by Sporidiobolus salmonicolor CBS 2636

BACKGROUND: The increasing industrial demand for carotenoids has led to growing interest in their bioproduction. The need to reduce production costs has encouraged the use of low‐cost agroindustrial substrates. In this context, this work studied the pretreatment of Mozzarella cheese whey and the use of the pretreated whey as fermentation medium for the bioproduction of carotenoids by Sporidiobolus salmonicolor CBS 2636. RESULTS: Bioproduction was carried out in an orbital shaker using a 10 mL L^?1 inoculum, incubation at 25 °C and a stirring rate of 180 rpm for 120 h in a non‐illuminated environment. The carotenoids were recovered using liquid N₂ combined with dimethyl sulfoxide for cell rupture and an acetone/methanol mixture (7:3 v/v) for extraction. The maximum concentration of total carotenoids obtained was 590.4 µg L^?1 in a medium with 900 g L^?1 cheese whey hydrolysate and 4 g L^?1 K₂HPO₄ at 180 rpm, 25 °C and pH 4. CONCLUSION: The use of enzyme‐hydrolysed cheese whey was more effective in carotenoid bioproduction by S. salmonicolor CBS 2636 than the use of acid‐hydrolysed cheese whey. The concentration of total carotenoids obtained with the enzymatic hydrolysate was six times higher than that obtained with the acid hydrolysate. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry