Development and Taste Improvement of Polyamine-Containing Sakekasu Beverages Using Highly Polyamine-Producing Bacteria from Fermented Foods

In our previous study, when Levilactobacillus brevis FB215, derived from blue cheese, was cultured in a water extract of Sakekasu, a byproduct of brewing Japanese rice wine, putrescine, a polyamine that has been reported to have health-promoting effects, accumulated. However, the culture supernatant exhibited an undesirable taste. A metabolome analysis revealed that the major metabolites that were increased by the fermentation of Sakekasu extract were lactate, citrulline, and putrescine. Sakekasu extract fermented by FB215 and cultured at 20 °C, 25 °C, 30 °C, and 37 °C contained lactate at concentrations of 35, 49, 58, and 59 mM, respectively, while the putrescine concentrations were approximately 1 mM at all culturing temperatures. Furthermore, 500 mL of Sakekasu extract fermented by FB215 contained 0.02 and 2.2% of the acceptable daily intake of tyramine and histamine, respectively, which are biogenic amines that raise safety concerns regarding their use in fermented foods. Supplementation with sucrose at a final sugar concentration of 16% (w/v) significantly improved the overall palatability of the Sakekasu extract fermented by FB215 to a level statistically equivalent to that of commercially available sugar-sweetened lactic acid bacterial beverages. A daily intake of 500 mL of Sakekasu extract fermented by FB215 provided approximately 28 mg of polyamines, which is equivalent to the increase in blood polyamine concentrations reported in a previous study.