A non-destructive digital imaging method to predict immobilized yeast-biomass

Cristian A. Acevedo*, Olivier Skurtys, Manuel E. Young, Javier Enrione, Franco Pedreschi, Fernando Osorio

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

In food fermentation, many types of immobilization systems are used, such as hydrogel entrapment, where alginate is the main biopolymer. One of the important problems in industrial processes is the quantifications of biomass, since the traditional system of direct cell counting cannot be used. In this study, a simple digital imaging method to determine the biomass of yeasts immobilized into alginate capsules was developed. Important evidence of the yeasts growing inside the alginate was the change in the surface color of the capsule. Digital images were taken with different biomass concentration, and the RGB-analysis showed significant differences in the blue field. The histogram of the blue channel was used to develop a PLS multivariate calibration to predict biomass concentration. The method was validated in primary beer fermentation with good efficiency.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1444-1449
Number of pages6
JournalLWT
Volume42
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alginate
  • Digital images
  • Image analysis
  • Immobilization
  • Multivariate calibration
  • RGB
  • Yeast

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