Optimization of Solid-State Fermentation Conditions for Enhancing the Nutrition Contents in Tomato Pomace Using RSM

A Rhizopus stolonifer culture has been used in solid-state fermentation process on tomato pomace using potato dextrose agar as a support. The objective of this research is to use a process factors such as inoculum concentration and fermentation time for optimizing the process responses such as protein content, fat content, lycopene content, and total phenolic content (TPC) using central composite design-response surface methodology technique (CCD-RSM). The favorable conditions for two process factors, i.e., inoculum concentration and fermentation time, were analyzed using CCD. The optimum outcomes were 10.51 fermentation time and 1.22% inoculum concentration exhibited maximum protein content (24.67%), fat content (19.61%), lycopene content (2.61 mg/100 g), and TPC (8.29 mg GAE/g), respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) method predicted the same dependency of process responses on process factors.