## 3 Results and Discussion
### Physical Properties of Pomace
#### 3.1.1 Pomace Water Activity (a\({}_{\text{w}}\)) and Dry Matter (d.m.)
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline  & **Raw** & **FD** & **CD** \\ \cline{2-4}  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**log CFU/g\_sd. \(\pm\) SD**} & \\ \hline B\_LB & 6.70 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 2.93 \(\pm\) 0.06 & \textless{}1 \\ B\_LP & 6.61 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 2.46 \(\pm\) 0.12 & \textless{}1 \\ B\_LF & 6.63 \(\pm\) 0.03 & 2.82 \(\pm\) 0.06 & \textless{}1 \\ B\_LMIX & 5.06 \(\pm\) 0.08 & 2.04 \(\pm\) 0.03 & \textless{}1 \\ C\_LB & 6.29 \(\pm\) 0.20 & 2.56 \(\pm\) 0.06 & \textless{}1 \\ C\_LP & 6.05 \(\pm\) 0.06 & 3.06 \(\pm\) 0.05 & \textless{}1 \\ C\_LF & 6.72 \(\pm\) 0.06 & 3.34 \(\pm\) 0.04 & \textless{}1 \\ C\_LMIX & 5.65 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 2.86 \(\pm\) 0.03 & \textless{}1 \\ P\_LB & 6.65 \(\pm\) 0.04 & 2.95 \(\pm\) 0.04 & \textless{}1 \\ P\_LP & 7.40 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 3.48 \(\pm\) 0.04 & \textless{}1 \\ P\_LF & 7.16 \(\pm\) 0.06 & 3.62 \(\pm\) 0.03 & \textless{}1 \\ P\_LMIX & 6.07 \(\pm\) 0.09 & 2.94 \(\pm\) 0.02 & \textless{}1 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Abbreviations of sample name: B–beetroot or C—carrot or P–pepper; LB—_Levilactobacillus brevis_, LF—_Limosilactobacillus fermartum_, LP—_Lactolatobacillus_ mixture of those 3 in proportion 1:1:1; CD—convective drying FD—freeze drying.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Concentration of LAB in raw or fermented pomace. between those two and ranged from 8.4 to 13.0. The highest content of dry matter in all non-dried pomace was observed for pomaces obtained from raw vegetables, non-used for fermentation. The fermentation process caused a decrease in dry matter, independently from vegetable or lactobacillus strains during the fermentation process. Similar values (7.4-8.1) for dry matter of fermented pepper were observed in the research of [PERSON] et al. [42] who have fermented different cultivars of pepper. It is related to the fermentation process in which the activity of LAB linked to the mineral nitrogen availability can cause intensive growth of bacteria and lead to the tissue structure loosening. That loosening structure in the final step can cause releasing from the vegetable tissue non-dissolved substances [42]. Moreover, that the loose structure of vegetables during pressing the juice can transfer more substances into the juice than leave it inside the pomace. After the drying process, the dry matter increased in all samples. The dry matter was above the value of 89, which makes the product dry and allows the product to be included in the drought. The exception was convection-dried red pepper pomace, which, as a result of convection drying, obtained only about 82% of the dry weight. This may be related to a high sugar content in the red pepper vegetable [43], which does not allow the removal of sufficient water under the presented experimental conditions. In all experiments, dry matter obtained after freeze-drying was statistically significantly higher than those from CD, the exceptions were samples from fermented by _Limosilactobacillus fermentum_ for beetroot and carrot pomace and for fermented by a mixture of _Lactobacillus_ red pepper pomace for which no statistically significant difference was seen. Moisture content (100 minus dry matter) determines how much water is in food, while water activity (a\({}_{\text{w}}\)) shows how that water will respond to microorganisms. The higher the water activity, the faster the growth of microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, yeasts or molds) [44; 45]. It is stated that most of the microorganism activity starts when a\({}_{\text{w}}\) is above 0.6 [46]. In the present research, a higher decrease was observed for beetroot and carrot pomaces dried in freeze dryer (Table 1). Water activity did not exceed 0.5 for the presented samples, in samples for FD water acidity was for beetroot pomaces at level 0.14-0.25, for carrot pomaces at level 0.14-0.22 and the highest for FD sample range was observed for red pepper pomaces 0.12-0.33. A water activity below 0.3 is beneficial for the stability of dried vegetables as it reduces the amount of water available for microbial growth and therefore powders can be stored longer [47].