SUCCINIC ACID AND ITS DERIVATIVES: FERMENTATIVE PRODUCTION USING SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL AGRO-FOOD BY-PRODUCTS AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

The fermentative production of succinic acid (SA) is becoming an attractive alternative to traditional chemical synthesis. SA can be used directly or transformed into some derived chemicals, with applications in the food industry. For example, SA and sodium succinate are flavour enhancers; adipic acid and its salts can be used as acidity regulators, acidifiers, flavour enhancers, gelling aids and slow raising agents. Moreover, SA-derived biodegradable plastics, such as aliphatic polyesters and aliphatic-aromatic co-polyesters have a wide range of applications in food packaging. The replacement of a chemical process with a biological one offers many environmental advantages. To make it cost-competitive, however, process optimization is required and the substrate cost has to be reduced. To reach this goal, renewable low-cost resources, such as agro-food by-products (molasses, cheese whey, wood hydrolysates, wheat flour) can be used in place of pure, expensive ones. In the present paper, the use of agro-food industry by-products as low cost carbon sources in the fermentative production of SA are reviewed. The use of SA and its derivatives in the food industry are also highlighted. Attention is focused on the innovative "cyclic" aspect of SA fermentative production and its applications from agro-food by-products to food products.