The valorization of wine lees as a source of mannoproteins for food and wine applications

Wine yeast lees constitute a winemaking by-product that, unlike grape skins and seeds, are not sufficiently exploited to add value to the winemaking sector, as their treatment and disposal generally represents a cost for wineries. Recently, some valorisation strategies proposed the integrated extraction of ethanol, polyphenols, and tartaric acid, while only a few studies investigated ways to exploit the remaining wine lees’ yeast biomass.

In particular, no studies attempted the extraction of mannoproteins (MPs), yeast cell wall polysaccharides with known foaming, emulsifying and wine-stabilizing activities, from the wine lees’ yeast biomass. To fill this gap, this research aims at developing an efficient and food grade method for the extraction of yeast MPs from commercial wine lees, and to test the obtained extracts as wine stabilisers, foaming agents, and food emulsifiers.

Which protocols were studied to extract MPs from wine lees? When compared to those obtained using commercial MPs-based products and/or MPs extracts from pure cultures of the same yeast strains, what were the foam-promoting abilities and stabilizing potential of the MP's extracts against protein and tartrate instabilities? How did they test as emulsifying and foaming agents in model food matrices?

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53144/INFOWINE.EN.2022.05.003

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