An Economic Evaluation of Freeze-Dried Kefir Starter Culture Production Using Whey

• Published in: Journal of dairy science 2007-05, Vol.90 (5), p.2175-2180
• Main Authors: Kourkoutas, Y., Sipsas, V., Papavasiliou, G., Koutinas, A.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal productions; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; bioreactors; Bioreactors - economics; cell culture; cost analysis; Costs and Cost Analysis - economics; culture media; Cultured Milk Products; cultured milk starters; economic analysis; Food engineering; Food Handling - methods; Food industries; freeze dryers; freeze drying; Freeze Drying - economics; Freeze Drying - instrumentation; Freeze Drying - methods; freeze-dried starter culture; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Gram-Positive Bacteria - growth & development; industrial scale-up; kefir; kefir co-culture; Milk - chemistry; Milk - microbiology; profitability; starter culture production; Terrestrial animal productions; Vertebrates; whey; Yeasts - growth & development
• ISSN: 0022-0302; 1525-3198
• DOI: 10.3168/jds.2006-557

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 30,000L for 300kg 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/kg ($18.5/kg) to ∉2.9/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 ∉10.8×109 ($13.0×109) within the European Union.