{"title":"Future food court in an urban shopping center can supply feedstocks for microbial protein production","authors":"Terhi Viinikanoja , Eevi Haajanen , Maria Pajumo, Amanda Lillberg, Emilia Nordlund, Anneli Ritala","doi":"10.1016/j.nbt.2025.07.007","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food courts in urban shopping centers can be future sources of feedstock for microbial protein production. This study explored whether filamentous fungi <em>Trichoderma reesei</em>, <em>Paecilomyces variotii</em> and <em>Rhizopus oligosporus</em> can be cultivated on growth media prepared from orange peels, soft drink waste-mix, expired bread or spent coffee grounds, all existing and potential by-products of future food courts. Furthermore, artificial urine to describe human urine as a future nitrogen source was investigated. Side stream pretreatments facilitated sugar releases up to 171 g L<sup>−1</sup> (expired bread). Cultivation media were prepared from pretreated side streams with 40 g L<sup>−1</sup> sugar. Flask cultivations supplemented with nitrogen and micronutrient increased fungal biomass production. From the nitrogen sources tested, yeast extract (10 g L<sup>−1</sup>) proved effective in media based on soft drink waste-mix and orange peel juice. For the latter artificial urine (5 g L<sup>−1</sup> urea) worked as well. The effects of these nitrogen supplements, along with pH, on biomass production were further optimized using design of experiment methodology and validated in lab-scale bioreactor cultivations. The bioreactor cultivations of <em>P. variotii</em> and <em>T. reesei</em> with soft drink waste-mix or orange peel juice supplemented with yeast extract (13 – 15 g L<sup>−1</sup>) resulted in good biomass production up to 37.8 g L<sup>−1</sup> and 15 g L<sup>−1</sup> dry weight with total protein contents reaching 25 % and 35 % for <em>P. variotii</em> and <em>T. reesei</em>, respectively. Amino acid analyses revealed balanced essential amino acid distributions for human consumption, confirming that future food court by-products are viable substrates for sustainable fungal protein production in a circular economy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":19190,"journal":{"name":"New biotechnology","volume":"89 ","pages":"Pages 152-162"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"New biotechnology","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871678425000743","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Food courts in urban shopping centers can be future sources of feedstock for microbial protein production. This study explored whether filamentous fungi Trichoderma reesei, Paecilomyces variotii and Rhizopus oligosporus can be cultivated on growth media prepared from orange peels, soft drink waste-mix, expired bread or spent coffee grounds, all existing and potential by-products of future food courts. Furthermore, artificial urine to describe human urine as a future nitrogen source was investigated. Side stream pretreatments facilitated sugar releases up to 171 g L−1 (expired bread). Cultivation media were prepared from pretreated side streams with 40 g L−1 sugar. Flask cultivations supplemented with nitrogen and micronutrient increased fungal biomass production. From the nitrogen sources tested, yeast extract (10 g L−1) proved effective in media based on soft drink waste-mix and orange peel juice. For the latter artificial urine (5 g L−1 urea) worked as well. The effects of these nitrogen supplements, along with pH, on biomass production were further optimized using design of experiment methodology and validated in lab-scale bioreactor cultivations. The bioreactor cultivations of P. variotii and T. reesei with soft drink waste-mix or orange peel juice supplemented with yeast extract (13 – 15 g L−1) resulted in good biomass production up to 37.8 g L−1 and 15 g L−1 dry weight with total protein contents reaching 25 % and 35 % for P. variotii and T. reesei, respectively. Amino acid analyses revealed balanced essential amino acid distributions for human consumption, confirming that future food court by-products are viable substrates for sustainable fungal protein production in a circular economy.
期刊介绍:
New Biotechnology is the official journal of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) and is published bimonthly. It covers both the science of biotechnology and its surrounding political, business and financial milieu. The journal publishes peer-reviewed basic research papers, authoritative reviews, feature articles and opinions in all areas of biotechnology. It reflects the full diversity of current biotechnology science, particularly those advances in research and practice that open opportunities for exploitation of knowledge, commercially or otherwise, together with news, discussion and comment on broader issues of general interest and concern. The outlook is fully international.
The scope of the journal includes the research, industrial and commercial aspects of biotechnology, in areas such as: Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals; Food and Agriculture; Biofuels; Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology; Genomics and Synthetic Biology; Nanotechnology; Environment and Biodiversity; Biocatalysis; Bioremediation; Process engineering.