CRANBERRY PROCESSING WASTE FOR SOLID-STATE FUNGAL INOCULANT PRODUCTION

Cranberry pomace is a primary by-product of the traditional cranberry juice processing industry and its disposal presents economic and envir onmental problems. Microbial conversion of cranberry pomace into vario us value-added products is a practical approach for solving such dispo sal problems. The present research was undertaken to test the growth o f several agriculturally and industrially important fungi on cranberry pomace substrate through solid-state fermentation. Fungi, such as Tri choderma viride If-26, Trichoderma harzianum ATCC 24274, and Trichoder ma pseudokoningii ATCC 26801, a novel polymeric dye decolorizing Penic illium isolate, and a food-grade Rhizopus strain isolated from Tempeh, that produce industrially important extracellular enzymes were grown on a cranberry pomace-based medium at 25 degrees C for 4 days. The glu cosamine content of the heterogeneous fermented mixture was a good ind icator of fungal growth. The maximum growth of all fungi was establish ed on cranberry pomace supplemented with 0.05 g of CaCO3, 2.0 ml of wa ter, and 0.05 g of NH4NO3 or 0.2 ml of fish protein hydrolysate per gr am of pomace. It was concluded that bioconversion of cranberry process ing waste by industrially beneficial fungi through solid-state ferment ation was feasible. This potential can be coupled with the utilization of fish processing waste as an organic nitrogen source to develop mut ually complementary products benefiting both the fishery and cranberry processing industries. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.