Biotechnology encompasses the basic and applied sciences of living systems and their engineering aspects required to exploit their bioprocesses to bring products to the market place.

While understanding of bioprocess technology has rapidly advanced in recent years, man has been practicing biotechnology since prehistoric times. Today biotechnology has moved beyond local production of alcohol or fermented foods to the production of bio-ingredients and refined products and it has a tremendous potential for further increasing food production, improving food raw materials and producing ingredients that will improve human health.

It should be understood that biotechnology is a collection of techniques some of which may involve genetic engineering for the production of genetically modified foods (GMO).

Since “biotechnology” can include numerous processes and applications, the term “genetically modified” is applied only to products that have been genetically engineered.

Genetically modified foods (GMO) have been hailed by some people as an indispensable tool for solving the world’s food problems, and denounced by others as potentially catastrophic dangers on several grounds, including safety issues, and environmental concerns.

Keywords: food biotechnology, food bio ingredients, functional foods, agriculture biotechnology, food enzymes, bioconversion, genetic engineering, genetically modified foods

Biotechnology refers to the use of living organisms to make useful products, and overlaps with bioengineering and industrial microbiology.¹

Biotechnology has been unwittingly used for several thousand years, initially in the area of food production and preservation as exemplified by the early production of alcoholic beverages and bread using microbial “contaminants. Our early ancestors used fermentation without knowing the existence of microbial life. Egyptians were brewing beer and producing baked products by the 4^th millennium BC. Distillation of ethanol was developed and applied in China in the 2^nd millennium.

The modern biotechnology developed from the 19^th century after the discovery of microbiology and microbial life. Today, modern fermentation is still based on the principle of combining living matter (microorganisms) with nutrients under controlled conditions to produce high yield of the desired end products.

In the first half of the 20^th century World War 1 drove the development of the first large scale fermentation processes outside of alcohol production, the acetone and butanol process for the production of explosives and the citric acid fermentation in response to the disruption of Italian citrus exports.. The pressures of World War 2 brought us antibiotic fermentations in the form of penicillin and then streptomycin.

In the 1980s, recombinant gene technology led to the production of insulin for diabetes, rennet enzyme for cheese production^2,3 and genetically engineered yeast for baking.^4,5 These genetically engineered bio ingredients were the first products manufactured using recombinant technology.

Today genetically engineered microorganisms for the production of vitamins, organic acids, amino acids, sweeteners ,edible oils and nutritional supplements can be developed from the insertion of a functional gene⁶ (DNA) into a host such as Lactic acid bacteria⁷ are a Gram positive bacteria present in fermented foods and are identified as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS).

These lactic acid bacteria and probiotic microorganisms in fermented foods have been used for many years for health reasons and are now an attractive alternative for treating of intestinal disorders and seem to influence the immune system via stimulating protective immune cells. Through genetic engineering, it is possible to strengthen the effect of existing probiotic.⁸ strains and create completely new probiotics⁹ with multiple health benefits These natural or genetically engineered beneficial bacteria might alter the ratio of “good to bad bacteria “that inhabit the intestine, and might specifically block activity of food borne pathogens to prevent of gastrointestinal diseases.

Biotechnology, including genetic engineering technology, is going to play an important role in the production for functional foods. Functional foods also known as Nutraceuticals¹⁰ are going to be come preventive medicines and might help tackle health related issues For example, it is widely believed that omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial against cardiovascular diseases.

In addition, genetically engineered technology has resulted in worldwide significant changes in plant^11,12 and livestock¹³ production that will affect all steps of the production chain from agrochemical inputs and breeding to final food processing.

Because biotechnology process (fermentation) uses living materials, they offer several advantages over conventional chemical process (synthetic chemistry). Biotechnology can use renewable resources as raw materials and can operate at lower temperature, pressure and pH to produce high yield of end products with less energy consumption and cost.

In the most of biotechnology processes enzymes in whole microorganisms or extracted from cellular components are used to catalyze the biochemical reactions for the production of desired bio-products that have applications in food processing, functional foods, food supplements, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, diagnostics, environmental cleanup, etc.

Enzymes are catalysts that can convert raw materials (substrates) to form desired end products.¹⁴ These enzymes carry out the bioconversions. Early in the discovery of bioconversion process, three major challenges were present that are resolved by newly developed advanced technologies.

First challenge

Maintaining the desired optimum conditions (temperature, pressure, pH, oxygen levels, etc.) for the bioconversion process.

Solution: The development of automated and computerized equipments to assist in maintaining the desired optimum conditions for bioconversion process and monitoring the reactions. These instruments improved the bioconversion efficiency and increased the end-product yield.

Second challenge

The formation of unwanted impurities during the bioconversion process resulted in difficulties to produce the end- products in pure forms.

Solution: The development of separation and purification techniques for downstream process resulted in methods to economically produce highly pure end-products with higher recoveries.

Third challenge

The cost of catalytic enzymes used in the bioconversion process resulting in higher production cost.

Solution: The developments of Immobilized enzymes and cells systems for both continuous and semi-continuous bioconversion process have dramatically reduced the production cost of end products.

Food biotechnology is regulated under the same United States laws that govern the health, safety, efficacy and environmental impacts.

Regulatory control on food biotechnology is the responsibility of three federal agencies:

The food and drug administration (FDA)

Regulates novel substances in foods and feeds on the basis of dietary risk evaluating food safety allergy, and toxicity. The FDA has the right to ban any biotechnology food product that it determines is unsafe.

The United States department of agriculture (USDA)

Regulates genetically engineered plants under Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), it is assessing the impact of developed genetically engineered plant on the agriculture industry or the meat processing industry.¹⁹

The environmental protection agency (EPA)

Evaluates genetically engineered plants for environmental safety and evaluate risk assessments for potential harm to human and animal health. EPA is also, responsible in establishing tolerance and residue levels for pesticides in fruits and vegetables.

Today, the biotechnology industry has reached a rapid growth phase based on a broad understanding of genomics, proteomic,¹³ bioinformatics, genetic transformation and molecular breading. These technologies are now being transferred to large scale biotechnology operations.

It is expected that genetically engineered hosts, such as insects, stem and plant cells, and transgenic plants or animals sooner or later will reach broader applications in the production of new bio-ingredients, with applications in both food and pharmaceutical industries.

The use of extreme-thermophilic microbes in recombinant technology will yield unique enzymes active at high temperature as biocatalysts in non-aqueous solutions and broaden the technology platform to produce reservoir of new bio-products with wide applications in medicine, food, agriculture, environment, energy and chemical industries.

Today food biotechnology has a tremendous potential for increasing food production and improving food nutritional value, flavor and texture of food products. In addition, it has the potential for the production of newly food bio ingredients that will improve food processing and producing functional foods as a preventive medicine.

In the future innovations in biotechnology will continue bringing exciting new advances to improve the life of human beings on earth.

None.

Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

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