Protein Enrichment of Agro–Industrial Waste by Trichoderma harzianum EMCC 540 through Solid State Fermentation for Use as Animal Feed

Abstract

The disposal of agro-industrial wastes is a serious problem and their deposition poses health hazard for all the living beings. Agro-industrial residues constitute a major proportion (almost 30%) of worldwide agricultural production. SSF methods are widely used for the protein enrichment of agro–industrial waste.  The main aim of the present study is to use the Trichoderma harzianum with five different types from agro-industrial wastes (peels of mango, orange, apple, banana and tomato) for the enrichment of protein for wastes by SSF to use as animal feed. Fermentation temperature is one of the most important factors in fermentation process. The agro-industrial waste samples were incubated at different temperatures to determine the ideal fermentation temperature. From results the optimum fermentation temperature used to obtained the maximum crude protein by using Trichoderma harzianum was 28ᵒC. Crude protein content in fermented substrates increased from (23.35, 21.88, 24.13,16.19 and 9.5) g% to (84.46, 33.37, 28.60, 21.65 and 17.60) g% for peels of tomato, mango, orange, apple and banana respectively. Tomato peels is a good substrate for protein enrichment followed by mango peel, orange peel, apple peel and banana peel respectively.