Joining Expertise for Process Improvement: Higher Productivity and Lower Coproducts Through Growth Media Optimization 

Julien BENCHEIKH (a), Magali CROS (a), Romain THIAM (a), Serena ALLESINA (b), Deniele ZOGNO (b), Micheline EL KHOURY (a), Marco PANE (b), Eric ORIOL (a).

a: Procelys by Lesaffre Development and Applications 
b: Probiotical Research & Development
 

Bioindustry & fermentation companies are growing fast and will continue multiplying into the foreseeable future. This is linked to evolving market needs in terms of production criteria and continuously increasing market demands. Hence, increasing productivity and adapting process raw materials can be a challenge when considering this market evolution.

This work focuses on the impact of each process step: raw materials selection, optimization of biomass concentration from seed to production cultures, down stream process improvement, increase of productivity.

Joint experts working on Bifidobacterium sp. and Lactobacillus sp. improved the production process in terms of AFU and CFU count (+ 0.6 log CFU/mL to 1.5 log CFU/mL depending on the strain), quality of biomass, aggregates production & fermentation duration (shortened up to 3-4h).

This study shows how important it is to improve each step in a fermentation process and how sharing expertise between partners ensures continuous improvement & growth.