Cheese whey: A cost-effective alternative for hyaluronic acid production by Streptococcus zooepidemicus

• Four cheese whey formulated media were evaluated for hyaluronic acid production.
• Whey and whey hydrolysate provided the highest biomass and HA productions.
• HA concentrations comparable to synthetic medium were obtained in cheese whey.
• Whey protein is a good low-cost nitrogen source for HA production.
• Whey-formulated culture media reduced production costs by 70%.

This study focuses on the optimisation of cheese whey formulated media for the production of hyaluronic acid (HA) by Streptococcus zooepidemicus. Culture media containing whey (W; 2.1 g/L) or whey hydrolysate (WH; 2.4 g/L) gave the highest HA productions. Both W and WH produced high yields on protein consumed, suggesting cheese whey is a good nitrogen source for S. zooepidemicus production of HA. Polysaccharide concentrations of 4.0 g/L and 3.2 g/L were produced in W and WH in a further scale-up to 5 L bioreactors, confirming the suitability of the low-cost nitrogen source. Cheese whey culture media provided high molecular weight (>3000 kDa) HA products. This study revealed replacing the commercial peptone by the low-cost alternative could reduce HA production costs by up to a 70% compared to synthetic media.