Improvement of protein quality and degradation of allergen in soybean meal fermented by Neurospora crassa

Abstract The nutrition quality and bioactivity of soybean meal was investigated via solid-state fermentation using Neurospora crassa (NC) alone or Neurospora crassa and saccharomyces cerevisiae (NCSC) together. The optimized fermentation conditions of NC or NCSC were obtained as follow: fermentation temperature (30 °C both), fermentation time (72 h vs 74.7 h), solid-liquid ratio [1:3.5 vs 1:3.0 (g/mL)], inoculation amount (the inoculation amount of fungi/soybean meal (dry weight)) of Neurospora crassa + Saccharomyces [1% (m/m)+0 vs 1% (m/m) +20% (v/m)], initial pH (7.0 both). The protein hydrolysis of fermented soybean meal (FSM) could reach to 10.05% and 8.05% by NC and NCSC, respectively. In fermented soybean meal by NC, the level of total free amino acids (TFAA) increased 13 times (p  p  ) compared to soybean meal (SM). In fermented soybean meal by NCSC, the level of TFAA increased 6.76 times than that in SM ( p  ). SDS-PAGE results showed that macromolecular proteins were degraded to micromolecular proteins ( 50 values of allergic reaction were significantly increased. It indicated fermentation improved nutritional quality and antioxidant activity of SM, and may be applied to food materials.