The present invention relates to an oil comprising at least one polyunsaturated fatty acid having at least 20 carbon atoms (LC-PUFA). It is found that LC-PUFA-containing oil are susceptible to gelling by formation of microscopic crystals during storage ultimately resulting in unfavorable quality and handling properties. This problem has been particularly observed with a microbial oil comprising at least about 25% by weight LC-PUFA and a moisture content of 0.2 to 5% by weight. Surprisingly, it has been found that a LC-PUFA-containing oil as described above is effectively stable and does not show gelling properties under conventional storage conditions, if the oil composition as such contains less than about 8% preferably less than about 5% by weight of free fatty acid in the residual moisture of the oil. Therefore, the present invention is directed to an oil comprising at least about 25% by weight LC-PUFA and a moisture content comprising less than about 8% preferably less than about 5% by weight of free fatty acid.

A method for producing a basic acid such as L-lysine is provided. A basic amino acid or a fermentation product containing the same is produced by a method including the following steps (A) and (B): (A) a step of culturing a microorganism able to produce a basic amino acid in a culture medium so that bicarbonate ions and/or carbonate ions serve as counter ions for the basic amino acid, to obtain a fermentation broth containing the basic amino acid; (B) a step of subjecting the fermentation broth to a heat treatment under a pressure sufficient for preventing generation of carbon dioxide gas from the fermentation broth.

The present invention provides a process for the production of a microbial oil comprising culturing a micro-organism in a two stage fermentation process where, in a last stage that precedes the end of fermentation, the carbon source is: consumed by the micro-organisms at a rate greater than it is added to the medium; added at a rate #0.30 M carbon/kg medium; or is rate limiting on the growth of the micro-organism. The micro-organisms thus have the carbon source restricted so that they preferentially metabolise fats or lipids other than arachidonic acid (ARA), so increasing the proportion of ARA in the cells. A microbial oil is then recovered from the micro-organism, using hexane as a solvent, that has at least 50% ARA and at least 90% triglycerides.

The present invention generally relates to the field of preventing and/or treating inflammatory and infectious disorders, in particular by boosting the endogenous antimicrobial defences. One embodiment of the present invention is the use of non-replicating L. johnsonii La1 NCC533 (deposit number CNCM I-1225) for use in the treatment or prevention of disorders related to the immune system including infections.

An improved pasteurisation protocol for pasteurising microbial cells is disclosed. The protocol has three stages, a first heating stage, a second plateau stage at which the cells are held at a (maximum and) constant temperature, and a third cooling stage. Both the heating and the cooling stages are rapid, with the temperature of the cells passing through 40 to 80 C. in no more than 30 minutes in the heating stage. The heating rate is at least 0.5 C./minute and during cooling is at least 0.5 C./minute. The plateau maximum temperature is from 70 to 85 C. By plotting the pasteurisation protocol on a time (t, minutes) versus temperature (T, C.) graph, one obtains a trapezium having an area less than 13,000 C. minute. Not only does this result in a smaller energy input (and so a reduction in costs), but a better quality (and less oxidised) oil results having a peroxide value (POV) of less than 1.5 and an anisidine value (AnV) of less than 1.0.

The invention belongs to the field of chemical analysis and detection, and specifically relates to a pretreatment method for LC-MS detecting metabolomics of Aspergillus flavus. The method includes: culturing a strain of Aspergillus flavus; quenching the Aspergillus flavus; disrupting the cell membrane of Aspergillus flavus, and extracting a metabolome. The invention adopts a cold glycerol buffer solution combined with a rapid filtration method for quenching, and a MeOH/DCM/ACN/EA/HCOOH mixture is used as an metabolome extract, thereby achieving the object of efficiently extracting different polar compounds, and metabolome compound coverage is high; pretreatment of the cell metabolomics of Aspergillus flavus by the method of the invention can ensure the repeatability and stability of the metabolomics analysis method and reduce the false positive of the test results.

The present invention relates to a method for optimising the downstream processing of a protein-rich microalgae biomass of the Chlorella genus previously prepared by fermentation in heterotrophic conditions and in the absence of light, comprising: 1) providing biomass comprising more than 50% protein by dry weight of biomass; next, at low temperature, carrying out the following steps: 2) harvesting the biomass at the end of fermentation, 3) washing and concentrating the biomass, 4) optionally, lysing the biomass, next, without low temperature stress, 5) optionally, concentrating the biomass slurry, 6) applying heat treatment, 7) drying the biomass obtained in this way in order to obtain the product, a step of adjusting the pH to 7 being applied before or after the heat treatment step 6).

An improved pasteurisation protocol for pasteurising microbial cells is disclosed. The protocol has three stages, a first heating stage, a second plateau stage at which the cells are held at a (maximum and) constant temperature, and a third cooling stage. Both the heating and the cooling stages are rapid, with the temperature of the cells passing through 40 to 80 C. in no more than 30 minutes in the heating stage. The heating rate is at least 0.5 C./minute and during cooling is at least 0.5 C./minute. The plateau maximum temperature is from 70 to 85 C. By plotting the pasteurisation protocol on a time (t, minutes) versus temperature (T, C.) graph, one obtains a trapezium having an area less than 13,000 C. minute. Not only does this result in a smaller energy input (and so a reduction in costs), but a better quality (and less oxidized) oil results having a peroxide value (POV) of less than 1.5 and an anisidine value (AnV) of less than 1.0.

A method of producing a nutritional supplement from microbial cells. The method includes cultivating microbial cells to obtain a biomass; incubating the biomass with a heat treatment at temperature from 55? C. up to 80? C. for an incubation time from 10 minutes up to 60 minutes; concentrating the biomass by separating and removing a liquid phase from a solid phase to obtain a dry matter content from 2% up to 40% of total weight of the nutritional supplement. Disclosed also is a system of producing a nutritional supplement from microbial cells using the aforementioned method. The system includes a bioreactor; a heat-exchanger and a separator for carrying out the respective steps of the aforementioned method.

Reference is made to the Identification of the Microorganism, with the identification reference given by the Depositor SoF1, having the Accession number given by the INTERNATIONAL DEPOSITORY AUTHORITY, VTT E-193585, received on Jun. 11, 2019

A method for deep dehydration and desiccation of cyanobacteria includes steps of flocculation conditioning, high pressure diaphragm plate-frame pressure filtration, quartz glass box-type desiccation and negative pressure paddle drying.