Deals with various applications of biotechnology in Food processing includes genetically modified food and the concept of metabolic engineering as a novel technique.

1. Biotechnological
applications in Food
Processing
By
Abdul Rehman
16BTFT070

2. Learning
objectives
 Concept of Biotechnology and Food Biotechnology
 Applications of Food Biotechnology
 Fermentation and Starter Culture
 Genetically modified foods and its potential risk
 Metabolic engineering
 Applications of biotechnology in diagnostics for FoodTesting

3. Biotechnology
 The study of tools from living things (bios= life,
techno= tools and logos= study)
 It is any technological application that use biological
systems, living organisms or parts of living organisms
to make, modify, improve plants or animals for
beneficial use. (British biotechnologists)
 Integrated use of biochemistry, microbiology and
engineering sciences in order to achieve technological
applications of microbes, cultured cells and parts
thereof. (European federation of biotechnologist)
 Controlled use of biological agents such as microbes or
cellular components (US National Science)

4. Food
Biotechnology
 Application of technologies to make or modify animals,
plants and microorganisms, which have desired
production, marketing or nutrition related properties to
obtain food.
Applications:
✓Plant agriculture (Increased crop production, Cross
breeding, herbicide/pesticide resistant plants, use of
soil bacteria as an insecticide)
✓Animal agriculture (Reproduction, selection and
breeding, animal health, feeding and nutrition)

5. Food Biotechnology

6. Applications of
Food
Biotechnology
(in contd).
✓Use of bacteria such as Sacchromyces cerevisiae to
make bread, Lactobacillus to produce yoghurt etc.
✓Different strains of genetically engineered yeast
through foreign gene encoding glucoamylase are used
to make breweries at commercial level has enabled us
to make light wine.
✓Food processing companies are using enzymes that
are produced through genetically modified organisms
and are used for making cheese, curd and flavoring
food items.

7. Applications of
Food
Biotechnology
in day-to-day
life
 Emulsifiers
Acacia gum is predominantly used as emulsifier are now
synthesized from covalently coupled carbohydrates like
starch, pectins, sugar and protein from wheat, milk and
soya bean.
 Metabolic monitoring
Versatile gastrointestinal models for detailed monitoring
of digestibility, bioconversion and biodegradability of
foods and drugs and contaminants from the point of
safety and functionality. Also used for studying digestive
effects of nutraceutical foods.

8. Applications of
Food
Biotechnology
in day-to-day
life (in contd).
 Calcium intake
Oligo-fructose, a naturally occurring low digestible
oligosaccharide increases Ca absorption by as much as
22 percent. These findings can be used to create new
products in bakery, confectionery, dairy and beverages.
 Fermented food and enzymes
Now-a-days, genetically pure strains of microbes are
used which shows significant improvement in production
as well as reduction in overall time required for
fermentation process.

9. Application of
Biotechnology
in Food
Processing
 In Food Fermentation
Fermented foods are consumable products
that are generated from thermally treated or
untreated food raw materials of plant or animal
origin.
They have characteristic sensory and
nutritional value as well as properties
determining shelf life, hygiene or practical value
that are decisively affected by microorganisms
and/or enzymes

10. Advantages of
Fermented
foods
 They offer a high degree of hygienic safety.
 They have an increased shelf life compared to the raw
product.
 Raw materials are refined by improving quality
determining properties.
 Toxic or harmful substances derived from the raw
material, such as cyanides, hemagglutinins,
goitrogens, proteinase inhibitors, phytic acid, oxalic
acid, gluco-sinolates and indigestible carbohydrates,
are partly degraded.
 Manufacture requires only basic technology and low
energy consumption.
 They meet a demand for natural and organic food.

11. Role ofStarter
Cultures
 Starter cultures are preparations of live
microorganisms or their resting forms, whose
metabolic activity has desired effects in the
fermentation substrate, the food.
 They have mainly technological function in the food
manufacturing and are used as food ingredients at one
or more stages in the food manufacturing process
developing the desired metabolic activity during the
fermentation or ripening process.
 They contribute to the one or multiple unique
properties of a foodstuff especially in regard to taste,
flavour, colour, texture, safety, preservation, nutritional
value, wholesomeness and/or health benefits.

12. Role ofStarter
Cultures
(in contd).
 The use of ‘defined cultures’ allows for a greater degree
of control over the fermentation process. Following are
the distinction made between them:
Single-strain cultures: contain one strain of a
species
Multi-strain cultures: contain more than one strain
of a single species
Multi-strain mixed cultures: contain different
strains from different species.
 These different cultures are used in the fermentation of
milk, meat, wine, fruit, vegetables and cereals.

13. Some Uses of Starter Culture in Food Production

14. Biotechnology:
Improving
Food Nutrition
 Proteins and essential amino acids:
More than half of worldwide protein production is attained
from plants but plant proteins lack some essential amino
acids like lysine and sulphur containing amino acids.
e.g., Corn is genetically modified and it expresses proteins
produced by soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis
 Vitamins and minerals:
Being deficient inVitamin A, rice is not a perfect staple food.
e.g., The first provitamin rich transgenic rice was produced by
incorporating crtI gene and psy gene from bacteria and
daffodils
Variety of provitamin rich rice can eliminate malnutrition and
blindness from developing countries

15. Biotechnology:
Improving
Food Nutrition
(in contd).
 Iron:
Iron is one the most important minerals required for a healthy
body.
Rice is transformed with a foreign gene encoding iron
containing gene named ferritin.
Transformed rice contains double content of rice as compared
to non-transformed rice.
 Carbohydrates and lipids:
Carbohydrates, lipids can be modified in transgenic plants.
Potatoes have been genetically modified by inserting a gene
from bacteria that encode enzyme involved in starch
biosynthesis pathway.
These GM potatoes contain 30-60 % more starch

16. Biotechnology
in Production
of Food
Ingredients
 Food ingredients are substances used to increase
nutritional value, change consistency and enhance
flavour.
 These substances are usually of plant or microbial
origin – the common food and personal care
ingredients xanthan gum and guar gum are produced
by microbes.
 Many of the amino acid supplements, flavours, flavour
enhancers and vitamins added to breakfast cereals are
produced by microbial fermentation.
 Specialized high purification systems remove all
microbes prior to final food production

17. Biotechnology
in Production
of Food
Ingredients
(in contd).
 Enzymes are used as processing aids to enhance the
efficiency of food manufacture. For example, chymosin,
used to make cheese, is an enzyme that occurs naturally in
the stomachs of animals.
 Biotechnology had created a way for yeasts, molds and
bacteria to produce chymosin, eliminating reliance on
livestock for this enzyme.
 Flavouring agents, organic acids, food additives and amino
acids are all metabolites of microorganisms during
fermentation processes.
 Microbial fermentation processes are therefore
commercially exploited for production of these food
ingredients.

18. Ingredients Used in Food Production

19. Biotechnology
in diagnostics
for Food
Testing
 Many of the classical food microbiological methods used in the
past were culture-based, with micro or on agar plates and
detected through biochemical identification.
 However, these methods are often tedious, labor-intensive and
slow.
 Genetic based diagnostic and identification systems can
greatly enhance the specificity, sensitivity and speed of
microbial testing.
 The use of these technologies and other genetic tests allows
the characterization and identification of organisms at the
genus, species, sub-species and even strain levels, thereby
making it possible to pinpoint sources of food contamination,
to trace microorganisms throughout the food chain or to
identify the causal agents of foodborne illnesses.

20. Biotechnology
in diagnostics
for Food
Testing
(in contd).
 Molecular typing methodologies are used to characterize and
monitor the presence of spoilage flora (microbes causing food to
become unfit for eating), normal flora and micro flora in
foods,that commonly involves:
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Ribotyping (a method to determine homologies and
differences between bacteria at the species or sub-species
(strain) level
Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE, a method of separating
large DNA molecules that can be used for typing microbial
strains)
 Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) or amplified
fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) molecular marker systems
can also be used for the comparison of genetic differences
between species, subspecies and strains, depending on the
reaction conditions used

21. Use of
Biotechnology
to Improve
Yield
 Milk is of the food item used all over the world due to
its nutritional value.
 Bovine Somatotropin is a hormone released
by pituitary gland. It raises the milk production.
 Previously this hormone was extracted from brain of
slaughtered calves. But that results in low quantity.
Scientists inserted gene encoding bovine
Somatotropin in Escherichia coli . Now this hormone is
obtained in higher quantity.
 This hormone results in 10-12% rise in milk production

22. Biotechnology:
Enhancing
Taste
 Biotechnology has allowed scientists to produce fruits
with better taste.
 GM foods with better taste include seedless
watermelon, tomato, eggplant, pepper and cherries
etc.
 Elimination of seed from these food articles resulted in
more soluble sugar content enhancing sweetness.
 Fermentation pathways are modified using
biotechnology to add aroma in products such as wine.

23. Advanced
Approach:
Metabolic
Engineering
 Metabolic engineering, a new approach involving the
targeted and purposeful manipulation of the metabolic
pathways of an organism, is being widely researched to
improve the quality and yields of these food
ingredients.
 It typically involves alteration of cellular activities by
the manipulation of the enzymatic, transport and
regulatory functions of the cell using recombinant DNA
and other genetic techniques.
 Understanding the metabolic pathways associated
with these fermentation processes, and the ability to
redirect metabolic pathways, can increase production
of these metabolites and lead to production of novel
metabolites and a diversified product base.

24. ConceptofMetabolicEngineeringinFoodBiotechnology

25. Advanced
Approaches:
GM Foods
 Genetically modified (GM) foods are those produced from
organisms with modified genetic material (DNA) e.g.
through the insertion of a gene from another organism.
 Most of the currently available GM foods are derived from
plants, with possibility of GM food production from GM
animals or microorganisms in the near future.
• Advantages include:
Pest resistance
Herbicide tolerance
Resistance towards extreme weather conditions
Drought tolerance/salinity tolerance
Nutrition
Pharmaceuticals

26. GM enzymes
used in food
industry
 Catalase used in mayonnaise production and it
removes hydrogen peroxide.
 Chymosin useful in cheese production as it coagulates
milk.
 Glucose oxidase is used in baking as it stabilizes the
dough.
 ɑ-amylase converts starch into maltose and used in
baking for sweetness.
 Protease used for meat tenderization process, baking
and dairy products
 Juice yields from apples can be improved by adding
pectinase enzymes that are produced naturally by
strain of mould Aspergillus.

27. Genetically
Modified
Foods:
Examples
 Biotechnology Soybean
Soybean is the oil crop of greatest economic relevance in the
world. Its beans contain proportionally more essential amino
acids than meat, thus making it one of the most important food
crops today. Processed soybeans are important ingredients in
many food products.
Herbicide-tolerant soybean: Herbicide tolerant soybean
varieties contain a gene that provides resistance to one of two
broad spectrum herbicides.
Insect resistant soybean: This biotech soybean exhibits
resistance to lepidopteron pests through the production of
Cry1Ac protein.
Oleic acid soybean: This modified soybean contains high
levels of oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat.

28. Genetically
Modified
Foods:
Examples
(in contd).
 Biotechnology Maize
Maize is one of the three most important grains of the
world. It is used as livestock feeds, processed as cooking
oil and food additives, and currently as feedstock for
biofuels.
Herbicide-tolerant maize: These maize varieties work
in a similar manner to herbicide-tolerant soybean.
Insect-resistant maize: This modified maize contains
a built-in insecticidal protein from a naturally occurring
soil microorganism (Bt) that gives maize plants season-
long protection from corn borers.

29. Genetically
Modified
Foods:
Examples
(in contd).
 Biotechnology Rice
Rice is life for more than half of humanity. It is the staple
food for over 3 billion people, more than 90% of whom
are Asians.
Herbicide-tolerant rice: They contain a gene that
provides resistance to one of two broad spectrums,
environmentally benign herbicides.
Insect-tolerant rice: It reduces yield losses caused by
caterpillar pests, the most important of which are the
yellow stem borer in tropical Asia and the striped stem
borer in temperate areas.

30. Genetically
Modified
Foods:
Examples
(in contd).
 BiotechnologyTomato (Delayed-ripening tomato)
The delayed-ripening tomato became the first
genetically modified food crop to be produced in a
developed country.
These tomatoes spend more days on the vine than
other tomatoes, thus resulting in better flavour.
Furthermore, the longer shelf life has commercial
advantages in harvesting and shipping that can reduce
the costs of production.

31. Genetically
Modified
Foods:
Examples
(in contd).
 Biotechnology Potato (Virus-resistant potato)
Several potato varieties have been modified to
resist potato leaf roll virus (PLRV) and potato virus Y
(PVY). In the same way that people get inoculations to
prevent disease, these potato varieties are protected
through biotechnology from certain viruses.
Furthermore, virus resistance often results in
reduced insecticide use, which is needed to control
insect vectors that transmit viruses

32. Potential Risks
ofGM Food
 Risks to health
GM food contains foreign genes that can cause
hypersensitivity and allergic reactions.
One of the foreign protein is Cry9 that is encoded by
gene present in soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis has
been proved allergenic for animal feed.
 Risks to environment
Another potential risk is horizontal gene transfer.
Transgenic organisms when exposed to natural
environment may transfer genes to other organisms
resulting in spread transgene everywhere.
Consequences of this spread can destroy ecosystem and
other organisms.

33. References
 Fundamentals of Food Biotechnology, Wiley Blackwell, Byong H
Lee
 Role of Biotechnology in Food Processing, ACTA SCIENTIFIC
AGRICULTURE (ISSN: 2581-365X), Sikha Snehal and Abhinav
Dubey
 Current status and options for biotechnologies in food processing
and in food safety in developing countries, FAO International
TechnicalConference, January 2010
 The Role of Biotechnology in Food Production and Processing,
Industrial Engineering, Balarabe Musa Maryam, Mohammed Sani
Sambo Datsugwai, Idris Shehu