Utilization of grape pomaces and brewery waste Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the production of bio-based microencapsulated pigments.

This research approaches the utilization of brewery waste yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a vehicle for the encapsulation and protection of phenolic compounds from Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux grape pomace extracts. The main purpose of this research was to enrich the biomass of yeast to investigate its potential as a novel vehicle for further application as pigment or functional ingredient. The obtained powders presented characteristics appropriated for storage, such as low water activity (<0.289), hygroscopicity (<13.71 g/100 g) and moisture (<7.10%) and particle sizes lower than the sensory perceptible (<11.45 µm). This work proved that yeasts were loaded after spray-drying, thus, they might be considered as biocapsules. Furthermore, the bioaccessibility of encapsulated phenolic compounds from Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignon extracts was 34.96% and 14.25% higher compared to their respective free extracts, proving that yeasts are not only biocapsules of easy application, but also a biological material capable of protecting and delivering the compounds during gastrointestinal digestion.