Premise
- Fungi can grow well on carbohydrate-rich, moist substrates.
- A lot of side streams from food industry, as well as food waste, are carbohydrate-rich and moist.
- Non-sterile handling conditions means that these streams get contaminated with all kinds of different yeast, bacteria and fungi before the “target species” can take hold. The substrate spoils.
- Preservation with lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is easy and has been done for a long time. They grow fast and crucially quickly lower the pH of the substrate, making it much less ideal for most spoilage organisms to grow.
- Combining acidification/preservation of a substrate with LAB and then subsequently growing an acid-tolerant (and ideally lactic acid-consuming) fungus on it can lead to optimum utilisation of (food) industry side/waste streams.
Questions
- Which edible filamentous fungi can grow in acidic conditions and utilise lactic acid?
- Is fungal growth inhibited by metabolites of lactic acid bacteria?