Potential applications of dairy whey for the production of lactic acid bacteria cultures.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are applied in the food industry as fermentation agents for a variety of products. Cheese whey (CW) and second cheese whey (SCW) are the two main by-products of cheese production, and can be reused for biotechnological purposes. In this context, this review aims to summarise literature on the use of CW and SCW as culture media for the growth of LAB, as cryoprotectants for freeze-drying and as encapsulating agents for the spray-drying of these microorganisms. CW contains several nutrients that are reported to enhance the growth of LAB. As for SCW, research shows that it has potential to be applied as culture medium, although bacterial growth remains at least one or two log orders lower than CW. Regarding freeze-drying and spray-drying, reports indicate that whey-based cryoprotectants and CW as encapsulating agent offer significant protection from the stressful conditions employed in these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]