Microbial Enzyme Preparations Have a Bright Future in the Food Industry

Apr 7
02:00

2022

Fiona Bingly

Fiona Bingly

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The microbial enzymatic method is the main way to obtain enzyme preparations in modern enzyme engineering. Except for a few enzymes that are still extracted from animals and plants, most of them are produced by microorganisms.

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As an efficient biocatalyst,Microbial Enzyme Preparations Have a Bright Future in the Food Industry Articles enzyme preparations are widely used in the production of food additives. In the 1940s, the microbial enzyme preparation industry became the main source of enzyme preparations due to its wide variety, fast growth, easy processing and purification, and relatively low processing costs. Microbial enzymatic method is the main way to obtain enzyme preparations in modern enzyme engineering. Except for a few enzymes that are still extracted from animals and plants, most of them are produced by microorganisms.

 

What is a microbial enzyme preparation?

 

Enzyme preparations refer to a class of substances with enzymatic properties extracted from organisms. The main function of enzyme preparations is to catalyze various chemical reactions during food processing and improve food processing methods. It is a kind of protein with biocatalytic ability extracted from animals, plants and microorganisms. Microbial enzyme preparations are proteins extracted from microorganisms.

 

Application of microbial enzyme preparation

 

Enzymes in food industry have a wide range of applications, mainly in the fields of starch, brewing, fruit juice, beverages, condiments, and oil processing. Alpha-amylase is a widely distributed enzyme preparation, spreading from microorganisms to higher animals. Alpha-amylase in the baking industry has always been extracted from barley malt, bacteria and fungi. In the modern continuous baking process, adding α-amylase to flour can increase the fermentation rate, reduce the viscosity of the dough, increase the sugar content in the dough, and improve the taste, crust color and baking quality of the bread. It is a high-quality baking enzyme.

 

In the food industry, enzyme preparations are not only used as additives, but also have great applications in food preservation. Lysozyme acts exclusively on the cell wall of bacteria to dissolve the bacteria without adversely affecting human cells without cell walls, so it is widely used in medicine, food and other fields that need to kill bacteria.

 

In terms of food preservation, it can be used for the preservation of various foods, such as cheese, aquatic products, low-concentration brewed wine, dairy products and other foods. Egg white lysozyme is generally used for food preservation and preservation. Egg white lysozyme is harmless to human body and can effectively prevent bacteria from contaminating food. It has been widely used for antiseptic and fresh-keeping of various foods.

 

Processing technology of microbial enzyme preparation

 

As people pay more attention to health and environmental protection, enzyme preparations produced by microorganisms will develop better. Due to the strong specificity of enzyme action, mild reaction conditions, high safety and low environmental pollution, its production process is a large-scale production technology application process, which consists of three major steps: fermentation, extraction, and granulation.

 

The fermenting microorganisms are recombined by DNA technology to become highly efficient specific enzyme production bacteria. First, it must be expanded and cultivated in the laboratory, and then connected to the seed tank in the fermentation workshop for further expanded cultivation. After the expansion of the culture, the production bacteria enter the fermentor to start the artificial production of enzyme preparations. The production bacteria get sufficient nutrients and air in a large stainless steel fermentation tank, grow rapidly in a suitable environment, and produce a large amount of biological enzymes at the same time. The entire fermentation process is automatically controlled by a computer, and the raw materials used in the fermentation are mainly agricultural products.

 

The main task of the extraction process is to extract enzymes from the fermentation broth. This is accomplished by many filtration and concentration steps. First, after preliminary filtration, the fermentation broth becomes a clarified filtrate containing enzymes. At this time, the filtrate is further filtered to remove a large amount of water and small molecules and become a concentrated solution of enzymes. If necessary, the enzyme concentrate can be further concentrated. For enzyme products sold as liquids, the subsequent steps of extraction are enzyme standardization and enzyme stabilization.