Caracterização de goma xantana obtida a partir de coprodutos lácteos

Abstract

Milk processing generates large volumes of co-products among them are whey and dairy permeates. These co-products possess chemical constituents with potential to be used as substrates in fermentation processes for the production of biopolymers. Xanthan gum is a biopolymer of microbial origin produced by Xanthomonas campestris widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries. The objective of this work was to produce and characterize xanthan gums from milk permeate (MP) and deproteinized whey (DW) and to compare them with commercial xanthan gums. The xanthan gums produced were characterized and compared to the commercial by rheology, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR), thermogravimetry and colorimetry. The xanthan gum produced with the MP obtained a better result in the viscosity analysis than the gum produced with the DW. All xanthan gums presented differences in the region of 800 to 500 cm-1 in the FTIR-ATR spectroscopy. The principal component analysis showed similarity between GXC1 and GXC2 commercial gums, between GXPL and GXSD produced gums, and GXC3 commercial gum was different from the others. The xanthan gums produced showed three stages of thermal decomposition analysis and the commercial two stages in the thermogravimetric analysis. The xanthan gum produced using MP showed parameters similar to commercial xanthan gums for luminosity and whiteness index. This study demonstrated the potential of MP as a substrate for the production of xanthan gum, compared to DW. The xanthan gum obtained from MP showed better technological characteristics and the low protein content present in the substrate was promising for the fermentation process, allowing milk proteins to be used for others technological applications.