Study of Saccharomyces cerevisiae W13 as a functional starter for the removal of ochratoxin A

In this paper, a wild strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (W13) was studied for its OTA-removal ability, growth pattern and alcoholic fermentation profile at two different temperatures (25 and 30 °C) and two different sugar levels (200 and 250 g l^?1), with or without supplementation of medium with diammonium phosphate (DAP). A commercial strain (Lallemand EC1118) and a collection isolate (DBVPG 6500) of S. cerevisiae were also studied. All the strains were able to conclude fermentation, with S. cerevisiae W13 producing higher ethanol and glycerol contents; moreover, the wild strain was able to remove OTA (reduction of 6–57.21%), with the highest removing effect observed at 30 °C with 250 g l^?1 sugar and after 3 days.In addition, S. cerevisiae W13 was studied for its technological and qualitative traits, as it showed a high tolerance to single and combined stress conditions, β-d-glucosidase, pectolytic and xylanase activities, a low level of hydrogen sulphide production, a low-to-medium parietal interaction with phenolic compounds and no biogenic amines formation.The findings of this work have an applicative value for the potentiality of using S. cerevisiae W13 as functional starter for the production of wines with improved qualitative and food safety characteristics.