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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Cheese whey has been described as an environmental hazard due to its high organic content.
Although it has been suggested that whey can be used as food disinfectant, it continues to pose an
environmental problem because it still contains a high organic load. Here, we aimed to develop a
low-cost, scalable fermentation protocol to produce a disinfectant from dairy waste that has very
little organic content and high levels of lactic acid. Fermentation was achieved with industrial whey
from ewe, goat, and cow’s milk, using a specific mesophilic-lactic acid bacteria starter mix over
120 h, which yielded the highest lactic acid production and the lowest lactose content. Antibacterial
activity was observed against Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica, and Escherichia coli O157:H7,
plus a total of thirteen other food pathogenic and spoilage strains, and antibacterial activities were
determined to be highest after 120 h. We further validated this whey’s application as a disinfectant in
shredded lettuce and compared its e cacy to that of chlorine, evaluating microbial quality, texture,
color, and sensory perception, pH, and O2 and CO2 determinations. Results showed that not only
was microbial quality better when using our whey solution (p < 0.05), but also the quality indicators
for whey were statistically similar to those treated with chlorine. Hence, our work validates the use of
an industrial waste whey as a low-cost, e cient, and environmentally safe disinfectant, with potential
applications for minimally processed foodstu s as an alternative to chlorine
Description
Keywords
fermented whey antimicrobial minimally processed vegetables quality markers sensory evaluation desinfection chlorine alternative
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 2800
Publisher
MDPI