Pre-fermentative treatment of a model wine with aim to serve as a functional food with decreased alcohol content

Abstract

The effect of substrate concentration on the enzyme activity in the reaction of glucose conversion into gluconic acid was investigated by using three different enzyme preparations in media with two different glucose concentrations. The media were simulating the conditions in the must, thus named as minimal model must, and were composed form combination of several organic acids and glucose. Those media were having initial pH of 3.5 that is a very unfavorable for glucose oxidase activity having a pH optimum at the pH value of 5.5. Among the three preparations used, the bakery additive, Alphamalt Gloxy 5080, was the most active in the medium with glucose concentration of 10 g/L, showing conversion of more than 70% for the period of 24 h, while the same enzyme preparation in the medium with 100 g/L glucose converted only about 7% of glucose. The pH value of the medium at the beginning and at the end of the enzymatic reaction was a good indicator of the enzyme activity. It seems that for the conversion of glucose in higher concentration, enzymatic preparation in high concentration should also be used. The preliminary attempt of immobilization of two preparations of glucose oxidases in alginate beads was also performed and a successful immobilization procedure for utilization in food industry was preliminarily developed. Keywords: glucose oxidases, enzymatic pretreatment, glucose, gluconic acid, model wine, functional food