This study was conducted to determine the eVects of lactic acid bacteria (LAB, Lactobacillus salivarius) inoculation on the microbial,
physical and chemical properties of food waste mixture (FWM) stored at ambient temperature (25 °C) for 10 and 30 days. A complete pig
diet including restaurant food waste, bakery by-product, barley and wheat bran, and broiler poultry litter was amended with LAB at the
levels of 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5% and 1.0% and fermented anaerobically. These treatments were compared with intact FWM before storage and
non-anaerobically stored FWM.
Non-anaerobic storage of FWM showed microbial putrefaction with the loss (P < 0.05) of water and water soluble carbohydrate
(WSC) and increases (P < 0.005) in protein and Wber. Anaerobic fermentation of FWM with or without LAB seemed eVective in both 10-
and 30-day-storage. The addition of LAB inoculants to FWM showed a linear trend (P< 0.05) toward an increase in the number of total
and lactic acid bacteria and toward the nutritional improvement with WSC increased and Wber decreased. Long-term (30 days) storage
resulted in consistent reduction (P < 0.05) in numbers of total and lactic acid bacteria and pH and showed little change in chemical components,
compared with short-term (10 days) storage. On the basis of these results, LAB inoculation improved fermentative characteristics
of FWM. Among anaerobic treatments, further WSC increase and NDF reduction did not occur (P> 0.05) when LAB-added levels
were over 0.2%. Based on these observations the optimum level of LAB addition to FWM was 0.2%.
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