Adding value to pineapple waste: Characterization and evaluation of potential for bacteria and yeast culture medium

Abstract

In the use of fresh pineapple, whether in consumption or in the production of other foods, there is a release of 77.5% of waste from the total fruit consumed, generating tons of waste that, when not disposed of correctly, are potential sources of contamination. These residues could become by-products with high added value. One of these by-products could be a culture medium to be used in microbiology classes. In this way, the objective of this work was the production and characterization of flours from the pearl pineapple peel with subsequent evaluation of the efficiency of these flours as a culture medium in the growth of bacteria and yeasts. For this, the pineapple peels were sanitized, dried, transformed into flour and properly packaged and labeled. Physical-chemical analyzes were performed with these flours and culture media were prepared. With the microorganisms, a serial dilution was prepared and inoculated in plates with ACA culture medium – pineapple peel agar and in standard culture medium for comparison of the results. It was found that all yeasts grew abundantly on the ACA medium and only 30% of the bacteria were able to grow on this medium.