Bioconversion of sucralose-6-acetate to sucralose using immobilized microbial cells

Bioconversion of sucralose-6-acetate to sucralose, an artificial sweetener has been carried out using Arthrobacter sp. (ABL) and Bacillus subtilis (RRL-1789) strains isolated at IIIM, Jammu, India. Biotransformation of sucralose-6-acetate to sucralose involves use of microbial whole cells, immobilized whole cells and immobilized whole cell bioreactor. Immobilized whole cells packed bed reactor has shown much superior biotransformation process in aqueous system using green technology, where purification of the final product is not required. The final sucralose bioproduct was directly concentrated under vacuum to get white crystalline powder. The immobilized whole cell bioreactor was used for more than three cycles continuously, thus provided much cheaper, less time consuming and easy down streaming process. Moreover, the method does not require any purification steps, which is otherwise requisite for presently available methods for sucralose production, resulting in even lower cost of overall process.