The ever growing production and consumption of industrialized foods have increased the concern about supplementation and enrichment of food with vitamins and minerals, attempting the replenishment of the possible losses during their production processes, mainly the hydrosoluble vitamins, more specifically B2 vitamin or riboflavin. A subproduct of vegetal oil refining and the microorganism Candida guilliermondii DM 644 were used as the main substrate. The vitamin B2 was produced by the batch fermentation process using flasks with microorganism suspension, kept in orbital agitation, in the dark at 30°C for 24 hours. Optimization of the riboflavina production was carried out using a fractional factorial design, to evaluate the effects of oil substrate concentration, nitrogen source, pH, orbital agitation velocity, phosphate source, and yeast extract and the possible interactions. The maximum value of riboflavin concentration was 19.12µg/mL. The most important factors for riboflavin production were oil substrate concentration and nitrogen source, while phosphate source and yeast extract did not stimulate riboflavin production. The best conditions to produce riboflavin by C. guilliermondii DM 644 were: oil substrate 10g/L, urea 2.5g/L and pH 5.0. The orbital agitation velocity (200 and 400rpm) did not interfere in the biotechnological process.
vitamin B2; yeast; vegetable oil industrial waste
