A Quick Look-Around of Microbial Enzymes in Modern Food Industries and Dietary Research

Abstract

The use of microbial enzymes in food production started way before the discovery of the enzyme itself. In modern times microbial enzymes are rigorously utilized in the production and processing of food, especially in bakery, brewery, dairy and animal feed industries. Commercially, these enzymes are less expensive and easy to produce on a large scale, which makes them suitable for their industrial utilization. In food industries, microbial enzymes are used to improve the nutritional value and food processing as they provide essential metabolites, color, aroma, consistency, and texture to the final product. According to the industrial requirement, specific microbial enzymes are used based on their suitability in the food industry, such as transglutaminase is used to prepare gluten-free bread, lactase is used to prepare dairy products for milk-intolerant people, naringinase controls the bitterness in citrus juices, invertase is utilized to prepare probiotic drinks like “Kombucha”, and proteases from Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus oryzae are used to tenderize the meat products, etc. Additionally, microbial enzymes also assist to maintain healthy livestock by increasing the nutrient availability in the host gut, such as Aspergillus niger-derived phytase degrades the anti-nutritional phytic acid, while xylanase and β-glucanase ease the digestion of starch. At present, many of the microbial enzymes used in food industries are obtained from manipulated recombinant microbes with exogenous inserted sequences, as they can provide a better yield of the required enzyme. Moreover, microbial enzymes such as amylase, lactase, etc., can be used for dietary research involving study on biochemical properties of different dietary fibers and studies mimicking the murine digestion by in-vitro model. Furthermore, the industrialization of microbial enzymes is highly advantageous as it neither involves any animal cruelty nor it overburdens natural resources.