Microbial beta – carotene use as a food additive

The present article presents one of the possibilities to use in the food industry a microbial bio product type of vitamin A precursor. The microbial bioproduct has a high level of beta–carotene and has been obtained from the biomass resulted from the cultivation in optimum conditions of a yeast strain. The strain used is from Rhodotorula spp. and it has been selected from the natural environment. We studied the possibility to enrich with beta–carotene some natural syrups, by adding the microbial product in the original recipe. The bioproduct has been used in several recipes, in different concentrations and under several forms of presentation. We analyzed the following: the degree of bioproduct integration in the syrup, the physico–chemical and microbiological parameters of the syrup and the stability over time.