An Economic Evaluation of Freeze-Dried Kefir Starter Culture Production Using Whey

An economic study is presented in which industrial-scale production of freeze-dried kefir starter culture is discussed based on results on a laboratory scale. Industrial scale-up was based on a 3-step process using 3 bioreactors of 100, 3,000, and 30,000 L for 300 kg of freeze-dried culture/d of plant capacity. The major cost component of the total investment was the freeze-drying machinery, which consisted of 57% of the total investment. Production cost was reduced from €15.4/kg ($18.5/kg) to ∉2.9/kg ($3.5/kg) when the production capacity was increased from 30 to 900 kg/d. An economic analysis revealed a 3.5-fold increase in production cost compared with the corresponding production cost of the wet product, with an added value of up to ∉10.8 × 109 ($13.0 × 109) within the European Union.