Banca de DEFESA: Ana Carolina de Andrade Lima Orlandi

Fermentation technologies roadmap: perspectives on quality management of fermented products

bioprocess, technological roadmap, Fermentation technologies, innovation

According to Brazilian legislation, food security is the guarantee of regular and permanent access to safe, nutritious

food in sufficient quantity to satisfy nutritional needs and food preferences, without compromising access to other

essential needs (BRASIL, 2006). To exercise this right, it is necessary that the food made available to society follows

 all these requirements, that is, that it is free from chemical, physical and biological risks (WALLS et al., 2019).

Fermented products have become increasingly popular as healthy food options (Bruno et al., 2022) due to their probiotic,

antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. These are characteristics provided by the metabolism of fermenting 

microorganisms, whose enzymes, present in this biological system, convert a substrate into a product that may or may

not be of biological interest to the human body. The growth of beer, kombucha and mead markets has been remarkable.

Producers that start to venture into smaller scales set goals and business expansion goals to then be inserted as 

relevant players in the market. It is a fact that many do not have prior technical and scientific knowledge about

 production with fermenting microorganisms, causing this branch to be characterized by experimentation and that

 quality control is strictly sensorial, also for financial reasons. However, they coexist with the problem of product

 standardization, a relevant aspect when it comes to reproducibility and customer loyalty, who cultivate expectations

 about the products. 

The role of Levare Bioprocessos, a micro-enterprise in which the master's student participates since the project 

phase, is to provide assistance to artisanal producers of food and beverages resulting from fermentation. Currently,

 the company acts as a consultant, in order to carry out technical visits to the production sites for diagnosis and 

problem solving, thus providing the best guidelines for the formalization of the business. In this way, the team of 

consultants works to ensure that the business owner will provide a safe product for human consumption, in 

accordance with current legislation. However, the company's consulting proposal is not at a scalable level, an 

obstacle that was observed for the company's growth. With that, there was a decision by the responsible body of

 Levare Bioprocessos to invest time and skills to develop a product whose innovative technological solution is

 focused on the observed needs of the company's market. Therefore, it was necessary to study and recognize the

 current market for quality control technologies for artisanal fermentation productions, in order to build a roadmap

 that will lead to trends in this market. The result of this study will act as a target to be sought by the team of 

consultants in order to start a startup strand.