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.