DEGRADATION OF FOOD MANUFACTURING WASTES BY A FUNGAL ISOLATE

Abstract

Food manufacturing wastes, such as olive mill solid waste, tomato pomace and grape pomace are three wastes produced by food industries in the Region of Maule. One of the simplest strategies for the proper disposal of these residues is to directly eliminate them by cultivation with degrading mesophilic microorganisms, which use these wastes as their sole carbon source. A fungal strain was isolated from tomato peel and used to degrade food manufacturing wastes. This strain was effective in degrading olive mill solid waste, but partially degraded both grape and tomato pomace. Based on mycelium morphology, sequence of part of the ribosomal and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) DNA, the strain most probably belongs to Botrytis genera. This is the first report that uses a strain similar to Botrytis in degrading food manufacturing wastes from the Region of Maule.