Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria

Material and methods. Grains were obtained from five distilleries from some regions in Poland, in this work hereafter referred to as α, β, γ, δ, and ε distilleries. Corn was the raw material in the α, β, and γ distilleries, triticale in δ distillery, and rye in the ε one. From these five distilleries, sweet mashes during fermentation and after it, were also analysed. The total number of microorganisms, the number of lactic acid bacteria, the number of anaerobic bacteria and the quantity of yeasts and moulds in raw materials were calculated.

Results. The number of total viable bacteria (CFU/g), lactic acid bacteria (CFU/g), anaerobic bacteria (CFU/g), moulds, and yeasts (CFU/g) occur in the samples were determined. In all distilleries tested, all groups of microorganism were present.

Conclusions. The results of our study show that all tested distilleries have a lot of difficulties with microbiology pollution which leads to a decrease of ethanol production and economical problems. From the economical point of view, reduction of microbial contamination makes it possible to increase the production volume.