Microbiological monitoring of sugarcane juice at different stages of the clarification process

ANDUNI GUILLERMO; GUSILS CARLOS; RUIZ MARCELO; CÁRDENAS GERÓNIMO

BIOCELL

Instituto de Histología y Embriología "Dr. Mario H. Burgos". CONICET

Lugar: Mendoza; Año: 2006 vol. 30 p. 198 - 198

0327-9545

Cane sugar manufacturing process begins with the reception of sugarcane in the sugar mill, where it is crushed to extract its sugared juice, which is subsequently filtered, sulfated, decanted, limed and heated. The juice is then decanted in clarifiers to obtain clarified juice. During all these stages, the microorganisms existing in sugar cane play an important role in relation to the efficiency and quality of the final product. As a first step to control microbiologic quality, the microbial content of sugarcane juices obtained in Tucumán sugar industry, was analyzed. The microbiological methodology was performed according to ICUMSA official protocols. When analyzing the values obtained, it could be observed that in the case of first expressed juice and mixed juice, most of sugar mills exhibited very similar enumerations of bacteria, fungi, yeast or polysaccharide-producing microorganisms. In clarified juices, values obtained were low, and fungus and yeast were absent. From the results mentioned above, it can be stated that it is important to control different aspects of the clarification process in order to avoid the appearance  of undesired microorganisms affecting yield efficiency.