Whey filtration: a review of products, application, and pretreatment with transglutaminase enzyme.

In the cheese industry, whey, which is rich in lactose and proteins, is underutilized, causing adverse environmental impacts. The fractionation of its components, typically carried out through filtration membranes, faces operational challenges such as membrane fouling, significant protein loss during the process, and extended operating times. These challenges require attention and specific methods for optimization and to increase efficiency. A promising strategy to enhance industry efficiency and sustainability is the use of enzymatic pre-treatment with the enzyme transglutaminase (TGase). This enzyme plays a crucial role in protein modification, catalyzing covalent cross-links between lysine and glutamine residues, increasing the molecular weight of proteins, facilitating their retention on membranes, and contributing to the improvement of the quality of the final products. The aim of this study is to review the application of the enzyme TGase as a pretreatment in whey protein filtration. The scope involves assessing the enzyme's impact on whey protein properties and its relationship with process performance. It also aims to identify both the optimization of operational parameters and the enhancement of product characteristics. This study demonstrates that the application of TGase leads to improved performance in protein concentration, lactose permeation, and permeate flux rate during the filtration process. It also has the capacity to enhance protein solubility, viscosity, thermal stability, and protein gelation in whey. In this context, it is relevant for enhancing the characteristics of whey, thereby contributing to the production of higher quality final products in the food industry. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Whey-based polymeric films for food packaging applications: a review of recent trends.

The food industry is always looking for new strategies to extend the shelf life of food. In recent years, the focus has been on edible films and coatings. These play an essential role in the quality, safety, transport, storage, and display of a wide variety of fresh and processed foods and contribute to environmental sustainability. In this sense, this study aimed to carry out a bibliometric analysis and literature review on the production of whey-based films for application in food packaging. Whey-based films have different characteristics when compared to other biopolymers, such as antimicrobial and immunomodulatory capacity. A wide variety of compounds were found that can be incorporated into whey films, aiming to overcome their limitations related to high solubility and low mechanical properties. These compounds range from plasticizing agents, secondary biomacromolecules added to balance the polymer matrix (gelatin, starch, chitosan), and bioactive agents (essential oils, pigments extracted from plants, and other antimicrobial agents). The most cited foods as application matrix were meat (fish, chicken, ham, and beef), in addition to different types of cheese. Edible and biodegradable films have the potential to replace synthetic polymers, combining social, environmental, and economic aspects. The biggest challenge on a large scale is the stability of physical, chemical, and biological properties during application. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

Gelatin films from wastes: A review of production, characterization, and application trends in food preservation and agriculture.

Gelatin is the product resulting from collagen denaturation, which, in addition to conventional sources of extraction, can be recovered from wastes and byproducts rich in collagen widely generated by the industrial activities of poultry and cattle slaughterhouses and the fishing industry. Given the properties of good film-forming ability, nontoxicity, and biocompatibility for the addition of other compounds to obtain composite materials, gelatin is a potential polymer for the production of biodegradable films and, if extracted from waste sources, can contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution and positively impact several of the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations Organization. The gelatins extracted from porcine, poultry, and fish skins and untanned bovine hide wastes, or by-products can be used for the production of packaging films or edible coatings, while chromium-tanned leather wastes can be applied with mulching films in agriculture aiming at greater crop yield for food production. Also, the crosslinking of gelatin protein chains and the addition of plasticizers and other additives have shown promising results in improving gelatin films' mechanical, barrier, and solubility properties. In this sense, this paper reviewed gelatin-based films from wastes, covering the main characteristics of gelatin, techniques for film production and characterization, and applications of obtained films for the food field, in addition to considerations about social, environmental, and economic aspects.

Surface response methodology for the optimization of lipase production under submerged fermentation by filamentous fungi

Abstract A Plackett–Burman Factorial Design of 16 experiments was conducted to assess the influence of nine factors on the production of lipases by filamentous fungi. The factors investigated were bran type (used as the main carbon source), nitrogen source, nitrogen source concentration, inducer, inducer concentration, fungal strain (Aspergillus niger or Aspergillus flavus were selected as good lipase producers via submerged fermentation), pH and agitation. The concentration of the yeast extract and soybean oil and the pH had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on lipase production and were consecutively studied through a Full Factorial Design 23, with the concentration of yeast extract and pH being significant (p < 0.05). These variables were optimized using a central composite design, obtaining maximum lipolytic activities with the use of 45 g/L of yeast extract and pH 7.15. The statistical model showed a 94.12% correlation with the experimental data.

Surface response methodology for the optimization of lipase production under submerged fermentation by filamentous fungi.

A Plackett-Burman Factorial Design of 16 experiments was conducted to assess the influence of nine factors on the production of lipases by filamentous fungi. The factors investigated were bran type (used as the main carbon source), nitrogen source, nitrogen source concentration, inducer, inducer concentration, fungal strain (Aspergillus niger or Aspergillus flavus were selected as good lipase producers via submerged fermentation), pH and agitation. The concentration of the yeast extract and soybean oil and the pH had a significant effect (p<0.05) on lipase production and were consecutively studied through a Full Factorial Design 2(3), with the concentration of yeast extract and pH being significant (p<0.05). These variables were optimized using a central composite design, obtaining maximum lipolytic activities with the use of 45g/L of yeast extract and pH 7.15. The statistical model showed a 94.12% correlation with the experimental data.

Selection of lipase-producing microorganisms through submerged fermentation.

Lipases are enzymes used in various industrial sectors such as food, pharmaceutical and chemical synthesis industries. The selection of microorganisms isolated from soil or wastewater is an alternative to the discovery of new species with high enzymes productivity and with different catalytic activities. In this study, the selection of lipolytic fungi was carried out by submerged fermentation. A total of 27 fungi were used, of which 20 were isolated from dairy effluent and 7 from soil contaminated with diesel oil. The largest producers were the fungi Penicillium E-3 with maximum lipolytic activity of 2.81 U, Trichoderma E-19 and Aspergillus O-8 with maximum activities of 2.34 and 2.03 U where U is the amount of enzyme that releases 1 micromol of fatty acid per min per mL of enzyme extract. The fungi had maximum lipolytic activities on the 4th day of fermentation.