engleski

The influence of cane sugar and artificial sweeteners on water kefir production

Kefir drink represents a product which is obtained by fermentation of sugary medium, at room temperature, by different types of microorganisms contained within water kefir grains. It has been shown that water kefir has positive effects on human health including antihyperglycemic, antimutagenic, and antioxidative. In spite of these facts, the industrial production is still very limited because of varying fermentation conditions, and poorly explored and complex microorganism interaction present in water kefir grains. So far it was proven that water kefir drink can be produced using different initial sugar concentrations together with different types of fruit which are added as an additional carbon and nitrogen source for the working microorganisms. In this study, we tested the possibility of usage of non refined brown sugar from sugar cane as carbon source and its effect on the dynamics of water kefir production. In the first part of investigation the influence of two different initial sucrose concentrations ( 40 and 60 g L-1) on the composition of water kefir dring was tested, while in the second part the experiments were conducted with the addition of sweeteners (erythrol, xylitol and steviol). In this case, the initial sucrose concentration (cane sugar) was lower (20 g L-1) and the media contined the same concentration of added artificial sweetener. Obtined results show that water kefir production can be obtained with higher intitial sucrose concentrations and that it is possible to use cane sugar with no negative effects. Also, the addition of artificial sweeteners at the beginning of fermentation doesnt have any negative impacts on the fermentation process, respectively

cane sugar, artificial sweeteners, water kefir

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