Role of Cellulases in Food, Feed, and Beverage Industries

Abstract

The activities of microbial enzymes have been observed and utilized for many centuries, but it has been only in relatively recent times that the use of microbial enzymes has been commercialized. Cellulases are a group of enzymes consisting of three major components, endoglucanase, exoglucanase, and β-d-glucosidase of which endoglucanase acts on carboxymethyl cellulose causing random scission of cellulose chains yielding glucose and cello-oligosaccharides, exoglucanase acts on microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel) liberating cellobiose as the primary product β-glucosidase works on cellobiose to release glucose. All these enzymes act synergistically to release glucose as end product. Cellulase has a wide range of applications in Industrial Biotechnology and is the second most used industrial enzyme after protease. In most of the cases, they are used in combination with other enzymes like pectinase, hemicellulase, ligninase, etc. Some of the most important applications of cellulase are in food, brewery and wine, animal feed, textile and laundry, pulp and paper industries, as well as in biomass hydrolysis, agriculture, and research purposes. However, the most promising applications are in the food, feed, and beverage industries. The present review presents an overview of the role of cellulase enzyme in the food, feed, and beverage industries. Other major applications and scope for further research are also mentioned briefly.