Quantification of exopolysaccharide, lactic acid, and lactose concentrations in culture broth by near-infrared spectroscopy

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used for the simultaneous prediction of exopolysaccharide (EPS; 0-3 g/L) and lactic acid (0-59 g/L) productions as well as lactose (0-68 g/L) concentration in supernatant samples from pH-controlled batch cultures of Lactobacillus rhamnosus RW-9595M in supplemented whey permeate medium. To develop calibration equations, the correlation between the second derivative of 164 NIRS transmittance spectra and concentration data obtained with reference methods was calculated at the wavelength between 1653-1770 and 2041-2353 nm, using a partial least-squares method (PLS). The lactic acid and lactose concentrations were measured by HPLC, and the EPS concentration was estimated by a new ultrafiltration method. The PLS correlation coefficient (R(2)) and the standard error of cross-validation for the calibrations were 91% and 0.26 g/L for EPS, 99% and 2.54 g/L for lactic acid, and 98% and 3.32 g/L for lactose, respectively. The calibration equations were validated with 45 randomly selected culture samples from 6 cultures that were not used for calibration. A high agreement between data of the reference methods and those of NIRS was observed, with correlation coefficients and standard errors of prediction of 99% and 1.64 g/L for lactic acid, 99% and 4.5 g/L for lactose, and 91% and 0.32 g/L for EPS. The results suggest that NIRS could be a useful method for rapid monitoring and control of EPS lactic fermentations.