COMMUNICATION Use of Byproducts of Food Industry for Production of Antimicrobial Activity by Bacillus sp. P11 Fernanda L. Leães & Natália G. Vanin & Voltaire Sant’Anna & Adriano Brandelli Received: 4 March 2010 / Accepted: 9 July 2010 / Published online: 31 July 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract Production of antimicrobial activity by Bacillus sp. P11 was tested on different byproducts of food industry, like fish meal, grape waste, an industrial fibrous soybean residue, soybean meal, and cheese whey. Bacillus sp. P11 produced the higher amount of antimicrobial activity on soybean meal, followed by fish meal and fibrous soybean residue. Soybean meal was the selected medium to determine the effect of three variables (temperature, initial pH, and substrate concentration) on bacteriocin activity by response surface methodology, using a 2 3 factorial design. Statistical analysis showed good adequacy to the model (R 2 of 0.8268). In the range studied, temperature and initial pH of the medium have a significant effect on bacteriocin production, and substrate concentration has no significant effect. Response surface data showed maximum bacteriocin production at initial pH between 7.0 and 8.5 and temper- ature between 39 and 42 °C. In the optimum conditions (initial pH 7.0 and 42 °C), production of bacteriocin activity by Bacillus sp. P11 was compared using a commercial medium (BHI broth) and soybean meal. Maximum activity achieved with the soybean meal-based medium was similar to that obtained with BHI, indicating that soybean meal may be a cost-effective substrate for production of antimicrobial activity by Bacillus sp. P11. Keywords Agroindustrial waste . Bacteriocin . Bacillus . Response surface methodology . Soybean meal Introduction Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides widespread pro- duced among bacteria (Cotter et al. 2005). The attractive features of bacteriocins, such as their natural sources, wide range of activities, and their proteinaceous nature, which implies a putative degradation in the gastrointestinal tract of man and animals, have interested researchers seeking to develop new antimicrobial agents (Cleveland et al. 2001; Asaduzzaman and Sonomoto 2009). Those produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are largely studied with the perspective to search for safe and food-grade preservatives of biological origin (O’Sullivan et al. 2002; Calo-Mata et al. 2008). Despite the intensive work on bacteriocins produced by LAB, the genus Bacillus comprises a variety of industrially important species and has a history of safe use in both food and pharmaceutical industry (Paik et al. 1997; Pedersen et al. 2002; Hong et al. 2008; Vaucher et al. 2010). Indeed, bacteriocins or bacteriocin-like substances have been described for Bacillus spp., presenting a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity and potential use as biopreservative in food (Bizani et al. 2005; Motta et al. 2007). Bacteriocin production is often performed in complex media, which promote abundant growth and relatively high bacteriocin levels. The necessity for reduction of pollutants in the environment and the need to maximize returns on raw materials have encouraged the search for new ways of using food industry waste as the basis of culture media. Financial support: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil. F. L. Leães : N. G. Vanin : V. Sant’Anna : A. Brandelli Laboratory of Biochemistry and Applied Microbiology, Institute of Food Science and Technology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil A. Brandelli (*) ICTA-UFRGS, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Brazil e-mail: abrand@ufrgs.br Food Bioprocess Technol (2011) 4:822–828 DOI 10.1007/s11947-010-0410-9