Brewer's Saccharomyces yeast biomass: characteristics and potential applications

Abstract

Saccharomyces yeast biomass is the second major by-productfrom brewing industry. It can be of value as a raw material withdifferent uses, however, it is still underutilized, mostly, forswine and ruminant feed. This review aims to give a brief overviewon applications for this agro-industrial by-product asa source of nutrients for human and fish nutrition, microbialgrowth, production and industrial use of brewer's yeast componentsand highlight the needs for further investigations andresearch, especially in the areas of production of ingredientsfor functional foods and the use of brewer's yeast as agentsof detoxifying effluents containing heavy metals.