CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF ENZYMATIC WHEY-PROTEIN HYDROLYSIS - CORRELATION OF BASE CONSUMPTION WITH SOLUBLE NITROGEN-CONTENT

The optimization of enzymatic protein hydrolysis often represents a te dious task due to complicated analytical methods. The simplest system of continuous analysis consists of monitoring the base consumption dur ing a pH-controlled reactor operation. However, there are other criter ia commonly used for characterizing the extent of protein hydrolysis, comprising the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and the SN-TCA index, that is the fraction of nitrogen soluble in trichloroacetic acid under well-d efined conditions. Taking the SN-TCA index, expressed in terms of the so-called fraction of non-protein nitrogen NPN, as an example, it is s hown that these criteria may be correlated with base consumption. The advantages and limitations of this method are discussed.