An economic evaluation of freeze-dried kefir starter culture production using whey.
An economic study is presented in which industrial-scale production of freeze-dried kefir starter culture is discussed based on results on a laboratory scale. Industrial scale-up was based on a 3-step process using 3 bioreactors of 100, 3,000, and 30,000 L for 300 kg of freeze-dried culture/d of plant capacity. The major cost component of the total investment was the freeze-drying machinery, which consisted of 57% of the total investment. Production cost was reduced from 15.4 euros/kg ($18.5/kg) to 2.9 euros/kg ($3.5/kg) when the production capacity was increased from 30 to 900 kg/d. An economic analysis revealed a 3.5-fold increase in production cost compared with the corresponding production cost of the wet product, with an added value of up to 10.8 x 10(9) euros ($13.0 x 10(9)) within the European Union.
Kourkoutas
Y
Y
Food Biotechnology Group, Section of Analytical Environmental and Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, GR-26500 Patras, Greece.
Sipsas
V
V
Papavasiliou
G
G
Koutinas
A A
AA
D000818:Animals; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000191:economics; D043302:Cultured Milk Products; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D005612:Freeze Drying / Q000191:economics* / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D015003:Yeasts / Q000254:growth & development