P87: Effect of microbial and chemical inhibitors of microorganisms which cause deterioration of sugarcane juice

In México the sucrose is produced at the industrial scale, by the processing of sugar cane. During the process microbial presence cause deterioration of fresh cane juice. Deteriorative microorganisms generate losses during the process due to factors such as alcoholic fermentation, sucrose hydrolysis and formation of organic acids and polysaccharides. Lactic acid, soluble invertases and dextran formation affect the concentration of sucrose, as well as the yield and quality of sucrose crystals. An evaluation of undetermined losses during the sucrose manufacturing indicated the need to develop methods to prevent microbial deterioration. From a collection of low acid producing lactobacilli present in sugarcane juice, three strains were selected that showed inhibition of selected strains from sugarcane deteriorative consortia. Fifteen different sanitizers were tested for their ability to inhibit both bacterial and yeast selected strains from naturally fermented sugarcane juice. Four of them were selected based both on bacteriostatic and fungistatic activity as well as on toxicological criteria. The use of single agents or combinations of selected lactobacilli strains and  chemical biocides gave a practical spray procedure which allowed for a better sugarcane juice quality for processing.