Aspergillus oryzae (Koji Mold) and Neurospora intermedia (Oncom Mold) application for flaxseed oil cake processing

Abstract

Solid-state fermentation is applied to increase the nutritional value of plant materials which can be accompanied by the enrichment in antioxidant compounds. The aim of the research was to study the influence of fermentation with Aspergillus oryzae DSM 1861 (koji strain) that lasted for 2–6 days or Neurospora intermedia DSM 1265 (oncom strain) that lasted for 4–6 days on the chemical composition and the antioxidant potential of flaxseed oil cake.Fermented flaxseed oil cake contained significantly more protein (4–23%) of improved digestibility (by 24–47%) and a higher content of antioxidant substances than unfermented material. Considering changes in antioxidant potential during fermentation, it can be stated that the prolongation of the process with A. oryzae is reasonable but with N. intermedia is irrelevant. Mixture of cream cheese and flaxseed oil cake fermented with N. intermedia (20%, by mass) – cheese paste - was as a good protein source as the same cheese alone. Moreover, the digested cheese paste contained 34% more Folin-Ciocalteu reacting substances and showed as much as 60% higher activity of •OH scavenging than pure cheese. It can be concluded that oncom obtained from flaxseed oil cake can be considered a potential food additive.