The present paper deals with a preliminary investigation
into the ability of some acetic acid bacteria strains
to perform the oxidative biotransformation of the relatively
inexpensive substrate D-galactitol, to tagatose.
The setting-up of an analytical determination procedure
resulted in correct time course quantification, not only
of tagatose, the main reaction product, but also of the
substrate and any possible by-products. A preliminary
investigation into the possibility of inducing high dehydrogenase
activity levels related to the enzymes involved
in the biotransformation was also carried out.