In recent years, we have seen a general increase in consumer interest in different types of products with fewer additives, fats or sugars. In addition, people are becoming increasingly aware of the welfare of animals on farms.
These factors have led to increased investment in new products and research into new processes that guarantee the best product with the most efficient process.
In this context, the concept of precision fermentation has become increasingly popular and has become a term that can be found in almost all specialized media.
What is Precision Fermentation?
Precision fermentation is a technology that uses micro-organisms under controlled conditions to get products identical to those we are used to, such as milk and eggs.
We can use it not only to produce high-quality products without animal intervention, but also to improve animal-based products.
When you read this, you might think that this is just research and it is not sure if it is safe for humans to consume these types of products. Although precision fermentation is a really new technology and we need to do more research to find out all the pros and cons, let me tell you that we have been consuming fermented products for thousands of years. Fermentation is a practice that has been with mankind almost since the beginning and has allowed us to develop some other capabilities that have brought us to where we are now.
Let me give you some examples of fermented products that we can find in our supermarket: Beer, yoghurt, kimchi, bread or chucrut.
Two good examples of developments achieved through the use of biotechnology are the production of insulin and the process that milk goes through to make cheese. Before 1982, 1 kg of insulin required almost 50,000 pancreases from pigs or cows. This made it very expensive and created a lot of problems in the supply chain. It could also cause some allergic reactions. In 1982, a test was carried out: The researchers injected a DNA sequence of human insulin into a microorganism called E. coli and it was able to replicate the insulin sequence, overcoming the limitations we had mentioned earlier. After this discovery, by the year 2000, 99% of insulin was produced using this technique.
The case of cheese is very similar to that of insulin: Before the use of precision fermentation, we obtained the coagulating rennet by scraping the coating off the stomach of sacrificed calves. Nowadays, however, we can inject the gene responsible for producing this coagulating rennet into microorganisms that produce Chymosin B, just like the one produced by the calves. Today, 80% of the world’s coagulating rennet is produced in this way.
New precision fermentation proposals
Last week, Navarra Capital, a digital newspaper specialized in business, published an article in which they show the new tendencies in the world of fermentation. As, until 2023, precision fermentation focused on obtaining proteins from milk, eggs and meat, this year this technology is being used to obtain other products such as honey without bees, non-animal fats or some oils similar to palm oil, development of healthier alternatives to sugar, etc.
In an interview, the manager of food biotechnology at the CNTA said of this technology that “the benefits for the industry in terms of versatility, sustainability, saving resources and adaptability to climate change are quite significant”.
The use of precision fermentation can also help to improve the nutritional profile of products we already use on a daily basis.
This is just a small sample of what biotechnology can do for the way we eat and for our health. Processes such as fermentation help us to develop new products and ingredients that can improve our health and eating habits, as well as giving us some pharmaceutical benefits, such as probiotics.
From Biotech4Food, we encourage you to read the full article by Navarra Capital and to take a look at the projects and research being carried out by different companies, which can be a good example of the achievements of biotechnology in the agri-food sector.
Projects carried out by biotech companies
- Mylkcubator
- De Novo Dairy
- PFx Biotech
- MeliBio
- Melt&Marble
- Sun Bear Biofuture
- Ironic Biotech
- Novel Foods Group
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