Fruit wastes constitute high percentage of biodegradable residues emanating from fruit processing industries where they cause environmental challenges. These fruit wastes contained sufficient carbon source that can support fungi growth for conversion to animal feed supplement through biotechnological approach. Banana peel (Bp), pineapple peel (PAp) and papaya peel (Pp) were selected as substrates and the proximate analysis of the high solid content (HSC) type and low solid content (LSC) were performed. All samples contained simple and complex sugars that support fungi growth and development. Three white rot fungi –Phanerochaete chrysosporium (P. chrysosporium), Panus tigrinus (P. tigrinus) and Schizophyllum commune (S. commune), demonstrated profound growth and protein enrichment of the substrate with high enzyme secretion and elevated substrate consumption. Composite substrate from the three peels supported growth and protein enrichment by the fungi compared with individual substrates. All three fungi cells grew together on commercial media and formulated media. P. chrysosporium/P. tigrinus interaction and P. chrysosporium/S. commune interaction were deadlocked at contact, P. tigrinus/ S. commune interaction gave mutual intermingling while cultivation of the three together gave both deadlocked at contact and mutual intermingling. All microbial mixed cultures improved the protein secretion compared with their monocultures. Combination of P. chrysosporium and S. commune synthesized highest protein, enzymes and improved substrate consumption. Product synthesis in submerged phase bioconversion (SmB) was lower than solid state bioconversion (SSB); SSB was adopted after microbial interaction study. Substrate reformulation increased metabolizable sugar from 251 mg/g to 500 mg/g consisting 0.35g Bp, 5.5g PAp and 0.15g Pp; protein content increased from 104.22 mg/g to 160.68 mg/g. Media screening with Plackett-Burman design and optimization with face-centered-central composite design (FCCCD), gave KH2PO4 (1.2g/L), CaCl2 (0.8g/L) and peptone (0.8g/L) as media components. Protein synthesis increased to 175.23 mg/g. Optimum pH (5.4), inoculum size (6.1% ) and moisture content (70.2%) was achieved by FCCCD and protein synthesis increased to 198.77 mg/g. Kinetic study of biomass growth best fit with Monod equation (R2 = 0.936), µmax of 0.641 (day-1) and Ks of 23.35 mg/g. Haldane equation had R2 of 0.931, µmax of 0.644 (day 1) and Ki of 233.37 mg/g. Luedeking-Piret equation for substrate consumption gave R² of 0.9384; growth associated co-efficient (γ) of -49.08 mg/g and non-growth associated parameter (λ) of 48.862 mg/g/day. Product formation gave R² of 0.9888, growth associated co-efficient (α) of 0.0148 mg/g and non-growth associated parameter (β) of 0.0517 mg/g/day. Hanes-Woolf model fitted α-amylase (R² = 0.9108) and cellulase enzyme (R² = 0.9882) production. Km and Vmax of both were 11.55 Units/ml and 25.19 units/ml/day and 57.47 Units/ml, 3.05 units/ml/day respectively. Validation of parameters (media, process and kinetics) in 7 kg capacity reactor increased protein synthesis (228 mg/g), enzyme production, substrate consumption and improved productivity. Optimization of substrate depth and bioconversion period gave 2.5 cm as optimum depth and six days as optimum bioconversion period. Kinetics of in-vitro digestibility of flask optimized product and reactor, fitted into zero order model while nutritional analysis of final product showed great improvement in protein, amino acids and sugars.

The use of abundant agro industrial residues, which have no direct importance to humans, for the production of animal feed via bioconversion indicates that it is quite feasible and economical for sustainable livestock production. This provides an effective strategy for meeting the feed demands particularly in emerging economies and also contributes to the management of the environmental nuisance created by their improper disposal. However, a major constrain in the bio-conversion of the agro industrial waste to animal feed is to isolate and grow locally sourced suitable white rot fungi that can degrades lignin while avoiding the degradation of polysaccharides. Hence, in this research, nutrients enriched animal feed production was targeted via solid state bioconversion of some selected agro industrial wastes. (rice husk, cassava peel and rice straw) using locally sourced white rot fungi. This was achieved by screening eleven white rot fungi sourced from Gombak forest, Selangor, Malaysia for their ligninolytic potential. Two isolates (M609RQY and M109RQY) emerged as potential strains on the basis of their ability to secrete the three lignin modifying enzymes (lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase and laccase ). These two isolates were then evaluated for their enrichment and ligninolytic enzyme ability on the three selected agro industrial wastes The isolate M609RQY identified as Panus I Lentinus tigrinus (IMI 398363) was found as the potential fungi and cassava peel stands out as the most potential substrate out of the three considered agro industrial wastes due to the enrichment in its nutritive value ( 40.81 % loss in lignin and 51.54% increase in protein content). Optimization of media constituents showed that wheat flour, MgS04 and particle size were the most influencing media constituents for the enrichment of cassava peel by the white rot fungi Panus tigrinus. Wheat flour at 4.3% (w/w), MgS04 at 0.45% and 1 mm particle size were found as optimum media constituents for the enrichment of cassava peel by the white rot fungi P. tigrinus. Under these optimum media conditions, protein content increased `by 63.91% with lignin loss of 48.77%. The optimization study further showed that the optimum conditions for the bioconversion process were at a pH of 6, inoculum content of 6% (v/w) consisting of 1.04 mg biomass weight and moisture content of 70% (v/w). Under these conditions, the protein content further increased to 79.5% while about 46% degradation was obtained in the lignin content. Kinetic study of the developed process indicated six days as the optimal incubation period. The specific growth rate of P. tigrinus on cassava peel was estimated at 0.0452 day-1. The rate of protein formation was estimated to be 0.904 day-1 , specific rate of lignin degradation was estimated to be 0.3009 day"1 and specific rate of substrate loss was estimated at 0.8875 day-1 .The total sugar and the in vitro digestibility of cassava peel after bioconversion were both significantly (p > 0.05) enhanced than the control sample. The chemical composition of the validated product from tray bioreactor consist of crude protein, 8.69% with the presence of all the essential amino acids; crude fibre, 10.69; crude fat, 1.11 %; ash, 3.37%; lignin, 8.79%; cellulose, 12.36%; and hemicellulose,11.88%. It has a high in vitro dry matter digestibility, reduced HCN content below the minimum limit and has no cytotoxicity effect.