Abstract
There are many small factories for cheese making in Hokkaido, which produce whey as by-products of cheese. Cheese is produced from about 10% of milk produce, therefore about 90% becomes whey. Whey contains high nutritive components such as whey-protein, lactose, vitamin and minerals. Whey are having high BOD causes environmental pollution when it is thrown away. However, on the other hand, there are no vinegar-making factories in Hokkaido. Vinegar has various usage such as salad dressing and mayonnaise etc. as well as functions such as an appetizer, fatigue recover and germicide etc. The production of vinegar from whey was studied in this paper. Yeasts of two genera, Kluyveromyces sp. and Saccharomyces sp., were examined. Kluyveromyces sp. was selected as it could directly ferment lactose. Whey containg 8% ethanol was obtained from the 3-fold whey concentrates through ethanol fermentation using Kluyveromyces sp. from kefir. This whey liquor was used for acetic acid fermentation using four strains of acetic acid bacteria. Tow-fold diluents of whey liquor were optimal for acetic acid fermentation by Acetobacter pasteurianus IFO 14814. The whey liquor diluents were fermented by Acetobacter pasteurianus IFO 14814, although they were followed by the addition of 4% ethanol after 3 days. The whey vinegar obtained contained 5.2% acetic acid. The whey vinegar was yellow and slightly green in color. It had the faint odor of cow's milk and a mellow acid taste.
