Fungal bioconversion of Korean food wastes for the production of animal feed additive enzymes

Korean food waste, one of the abundantly available but environmentally problematic organic wastes in Korea, was utilized as solid-substrate by fungal strain Aspergillus niger ATcC 6275 for the production of enzymemixture containing amylase, cellulase and xylanase. The enzyme mixture can be used as high value-added animal feed. Solid-state fermentation method yielded a 84-fold enhancement in xylanase activity compared with submerged fermentation method. The effect of incubation period, incubation temperature, pH of medium, moisture content, inoculum size and enrichment of the medium with nitrogen and carbon sources were observed for optimal production of these enzymes The optimal amylase activity of 33.10 U/g, cellulase activity of 24.41 U/g, xylanase activity of 328.84 U/g were obtained at 8 days incubation with 50%(w/w) soy bean flake, with incubation temperature of $25^{\circ}C$, pH of 6.38, optimal moisture content of 55% and with inoculum size of $3.8{\times}10^6$spore/g. Enzyme activities were enhanced when ImM $CaSO_4$, 2% Malt extract and 2% galactose were added as mineral, nitrogen and carbon enrichment respectively.