Screening of media composition for bioprotein production from palm kernel cake by Aspergillus niger for fish feed

Abstract

The world’s population are increasing and the demands for natural resources of food especially protein source such as fish are limited. Only a rational and sustainable effort will continue to produce enough and nutritive food, to satisfy the future needs of human kind. Bioprotein production is the one of the most promising breakthroughs of biotechnological innovation in animal feed industry, especially in fish feed. Due to its increasing demand and the high cost of other fish feed, the palm kernel cake (PKC) as a substrate was used for production of bioprotein for fulfilling fish feed industry’s demand. In this project, the screening of media composition for bioprotein from production palm kernel cake by Aspergillus niger for fish feed application was carried out with different percentage value according to the Plackett-Burman design. Among the seven parameters of media compositions, KH2PO4 and CuSO4.5H2O were found to be the significant model terms with confidence level above 95 percent and considered to affect bioprotein production. Highest bioprotein obtained was 1.0995 mg/L. This study would provide a better alternative in agricultural products by converting agriculture waste to valuable and quality product such as bioprotein, which can be used as supplement and additive in the fish feed and food as well as in chemical and pharmaceutical industries.