Abstract
Rising concerns about sustainability, food security, health, and animal welfare, drive the shift to sustainable protein alternatives. Agricultural activities generate huge amounts of waste, ranging from crop residues to processing by-products, which often remain un/under-utilized, like leaves and stalks. This underutilization not only represents a missed opportunity to extract value from these resources but also poses environmental challenges such as pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Here we address both issues, focusing on the utilization of agri-food waste, specifically corn leaves and stalks as a model, to grow yeast biomass. The yeast biomass itself is a great source of protein and other nutrients and could later be used to create protein-based alternatives for animal-based products, or other food applications. First, after harvest, we mechanically shredded the plant, dried it in an oven, and kept it at -80⁰C until each use. Then, we chemically and enzymatically processed it to hydrolyze cellulose to obtain a rich substrate for growing yeast biomass (and obtained around 4% sugar concentration in the substrate). Next, we used the substrate to grow biomass of a GRAS yeast strain, Yarrowia lipolytica, and obtained about 1 gram of dry yeast biomass per 12.5 grams of corn waste (dry weight) used as raw material. The yeast was then separated from the substrate, freeze dried and analyzed for composition. The process shows great practical potential of utilizing agricultural waste to grow microorganisms as a possible alternative protein source for food.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Food Production and Sustainability
KEYWORDS
Agri-Food Waste Utilization Alternative Proteins Yeast Biomass Cellulose Hydrolysis
