Source: NUTRACEUTICAL INNOVATIONS, LLC submitted to
LOW COST PRODUCTION OF YEAST FROM HEAT-STABILIZED DEFATTED RICE BRAN
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0210201
Grant No.
2007-33610-18014
Project No.
ARKK-2007-00455
Proposal No.
2007-00455
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
8.5
Project Start Date
Jun 1, 2007
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2008
Grant Year
2007
Project Director
Horax, R.
Recipient Organization
NUTRACEUTICAL INNOVATIONS, LLC
535 W. RESEARCH CTR., BLVD, SUITE 135
FAYETTEVILLE,AR 72701
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Rice bran is an underutilized co-product of the rice processing industry and may be used as an inexpensive substrate for the production of yeast. If the proposed process is shown to be more economical than production of yeast in molasses, the rice processing industry will benefit from increased value of rice bran and the yeast production industry will benefit from lower production costs.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
50150101000100%
Knowledge Area
501 - New and Improved Food Processing Technologies;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
1000 - Biochemistry and biophysics;
Goals / Objectives
This Phase I project will optimize the growth in heat-stabilized, defatted rice bran (HDRB) of several strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast in an automated bio-reactor. After activating yeast from frozen stock, the conditions for growth of yeast inside the automated bioreactor will be optimized. The strain that performs best will be selected for further study in Phase II. Additional factors that will be considered in the selection of yeast strains include marketability of the strain and characteristics of the co-products of yeast fermentation. The specific Phase I objectives are: 1. Conduct and demonstrate the feasibility of producing yeast from HDRB using an automated bioreactor. 2. Optimize HDRB:water ratio and time of incubation to produce maximum amount of yeast from HDRB. 3. Optimize the temperature and pH, to produce the maximum amount of yeast from HDRB. 4. Demonstrate the maximum amount of yeast produced when conditions under objectives 2 and 3 are integrated. The Phase I work will establish the feasibility of the automation of the process. In Phase II, the work will be extended to pilot-scale testing in coordination with Riceland Foods, our commercialization partner, and in coordination with yeast manufacturers.
Project Methods
Yeast fermentation in heat-stabilized defatted rice bran (HDRB ) is a promising technology to reduce the cost of production of yeast. HDRB contains the essential nutrients for the growth of yeast in a complex form and does not require the addition of nutrients as is required in the commercial scale production of yeast using food grade molasses. The HDRB contains 10.5-12.0% moisture, 18.5-20.9% protein, 1.5-2.0% lipid, 15.3-16.8% starch (from broken endosperm), 25.2-25.6% total fiber, 0.5-0.7% total phenolics, 1.73-2.28% phytic acid, and 9.0-10.4% ash. In addition, rice bran also contains vitamins (Thiamin 2.75 mg, Riboflavin 0.28 mg, Niacin 33.00 mg, Pantothenic acid 7.39 mg, Vitamin B-6 4.07 mg, Folate 63 ug, Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) 4.92 mg, Vitamin K (phylloquinone) 1.9 ug per 100 g) and minerals (Ca 57 mg, Fe 18.54 mg, Mg 781 mg, P 1677 mg, K 1485 mg, Na 5 mg, Zn 6.0 mg, Cu 0.7 mg, Mn 14.2 mg, Se 15.6 ug per 100g). The growth performance of yeast in HDRB in manual studies has been demonstrated by the Nutraceutical Innovations team. In this Phase I proposal, the production of yeast using HDRB will be optimized using an automated fermentation system .

Progress 06/01/07 to 07/31/08

Outputs
OUTPUTS: This Phase I project demonstrated that rice bran can be used as a growth medium for yeast. Yeast is used in the production of and as an additive in a wide variety of foods and beverages. The yeast production industry and the industries that use yeast in their production process will benefit immediately from the availability of this new, low-cost, high performance growth medium for yeast. Nutraceutical Innovations has maintained close communication with Riceland Foods, the world's largest rice miller, because both companies stand to benefit from the commercialization of this value-added process. The low-cost production of yeast is just one element of a patent-pending total system approach to produce a wide range of high market value products from rice bran. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Ronny Horax participated as the Principal Investigator dedicating 8 months of time to the project; Dr. Navam Hettiarachchy participated as the Chief Technology Officer and dedicated 1 month of time to the project; there were no other participants. TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
This Phase I project focused on the economic production of yeast in an automated bio-reactor using rice bran as an energy and nutrient source. Rice bran is an under-utilized, abundantly available, low-cost co-product of the rice milling process and is currently used almost exclusively as an inexpensive additive in animal feed. The use of rice bran for the production of yeast is an innovative approach to increase the value of rice bran. These Phase I studies have shown that rice bran is a viable alternative to molasses for the production of yeast. The use of rice bran for production of yeast will help meet the growing market need for traditional and specialty yeast products.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period