Background: In 2014, apple production in EU countries amounted to 11.8 million tonnes. A constant increase in
the production of these fruits will lead to the accumulation of thousands of tonnes of apple pomace
(production waste). The amount of industrial apples is the highest — their proportion on the market is
estimated at 50–60%, of which over 95% is processed into juice. The proportion of pomace in the traditional
pressing method accounts for 20% of fruits used.
Results: Analysis of the growth dynamics of wild strain
Propionibacterium freudenreichii
T82 in micro-cultures using different carbon sources showed that the highest bacterial growth occurs in an environment with
fructose and the most intense biosynthesis of metabolites was found in medium containing only saccharose. It
has been found that
P. freudenreichii T82 used apple pomaces as a source of carbon. Propionic acid biosynthesis
reached its maximum value in the 120th hour of cultivation (1.771 g/L). At this time, the content of the acetic
acid produced reached the level of 7.049 g/L.
Conclusions: Utilization of by-products is a significant challenge for manufacturing sites and the natural
environment. The solution to this problem may involve the use of pomace as a medium component for
microorganism cultivation, which is a source of industrially useful metabolites. This study examined the
possibility of using apple pomace as a carbon source in the process of propionic-acetic fermentation via wild
strain
Propionibacterium freudenreichii T82 bacteria.
