Spent Brewer’s Yeast as a Source of Insoluble β-Glucans

• Main Authors: Ionut Avramia, Sonia Amariei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: particulate β-glucans; spent brewer’s yeast; <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>; bioactive polysaccharides
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/2/825

In the brewing process, the consumption of resources and the amount of waste generated are high and due to a lot of organic compounds in waste-water, the capacity of natural regeneration of the environment is exceeded. Residual yeast, the second by-product of brewing is considered to have an important chemical composition. An approach with nutritional potential refers to the extraction of bioactive compounds from the yeast cell wall, such as β-glucans. Concerning the potential food applications with better textural characteristics, spent brewer’s yeast glucan has high emulsion stability and water-holding capacity fitting best as a fat replacer in different food matrices. Few studies demonstrate the importance and nutritional role of β-glucans from brewer’s yeast, and even less for spent brewer’s yeast, due to additional steps in the extraction process. This review focuses on describing the process of obtaining insoluble β-glucans (particulate) from spent brewer’s yeast and provides an insight into how a by-product from brewing can be converted to potential food applications.