Researchers from the Università Cattolica at Piacenza, have developed a new fertilizer from food chain waste, specifically from the waste of the productions of lactic acid bacteria that currently have to be eliminated through purification processes.
Effect of the eluate on plant growth. The replacement of 30%N with the eluate filled the gap and surpassed N100% in the first growth phase (dark gray) and in total growth. The numbers in the bars are expressed in sqcm and indicate the difference between T0–T1 and T1–T2, while the total growth is shown above the bars. Thin light gray bars indicate 95% confidence interval. Bars labeled with different letters differ significantly (p < 0.05, Duncan test). Credit: Land (2022). DOI: 10.3390/land11091544 This is the result of the study published in the journal Land and coordinated by Pier Sandro Cocconcelli, professor of Food Microbiology at the Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences at Cattolica University, and Edoardo Puglisi of the Department of Food Science and Technology for a Sustainable Food Supply Chain—DiSTAS. The study was carried out in collaboration with the company Sacco srl of Cadorago (CO) and the agronomic assay center LandLab srl of quinto Vicentino (VI); Gabriele Bellotti, a Ph.D. student at the Agrisystem School of the Università Cattolica, is the first author. Lactic acid bacteria Lactic acid bacteria are a group of microorganisms capable of fermenting various substrates, giving rise to numerous products of interest to the agri-food and industrial sectors. Lactic acid bacteria are involved in the production of cheeses, fermented milks, and sausages. "Lactic acid bacteria," Professor Cocconcelli says, "are produced for food and nutraceutical use, to produce foods, beverages and probiotics. Normally the…