What is the Food Biotechnology and where can we find it in our daily lives?

The agri-food sector is an important area of the National and European Economy, being the food and beverage industry the one that generates the largest turnover of the manufacturing industries.

Food Biotechnology is a broad term that applies to the use of living organisms to improve food production, either to increase productivity or to obtain better foods and/or specific characteristics.

According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, food produced by modern biotechnology can be classified into:

• Foods consisting of or containing living organisms;

• Foods produced by or containing ingredients produced by Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), such as: flour, protein-based products or soybean oil;

• Foods containing additives produced by genetically modified micro-organisms, such as: dyes, vitamins or essential amino acids;

• Foods containing ingredients which were processed by enzymes produced by microorganisms, such as: fructose syrup made from starch using an enzyme (glucose isomerase) produced by GMO’s;

corresponding to the three major types of food biotechnology transformations: microbial, genetic and enzymatic transformations.

The demand for food and agricultural products is rising, including sugarcane, rice, beans, and wheat. The importance of these products is expected to increase due to the growing population base in U.S., China, and India. In addition, factors such as shortage of water, low yield of crops, pest attacks, and limited availability of agricultural land are encouraging researchers to engage in extensive research and development.

According to José Teixeira (President of the Portuguese Biotechnology Society), the association between food and health is growing, which increases the importance of biotechnology in the agri-food sector. In recent years, the increase in the occurrence of sedentary lifestyle-related diseases and higher consumption of nutritionally poor foods has led to a greater awareness of the type of food consumed and, consequently, an increase in demand for so-called healthy foods. In turn, it has led to an increased investment by the food industry in their production and commercialization. Among these foods, functional foods are increasingly in demand. But what do functional food consist of? They are considered foods that can be shown to have a beneficial physiological effect on health and/or reduce the risk of chronic diseases in addition to basic nutritional function. Fermented food (like cheese, yogurt, kefir) are an important category of the functional food sector.

Also, Biotechnology has played an important role in the utilization and transformation of agri-food sub-products (such as bark, leaves and seeds) in value added products for different applications. Among them, sub-products can be applied in the production of new food ingredients, in the production of biodegradable food packaging, and they can be a rich source of fiber, vitamins, proteins, fat, minerals and sugars, and even be used as nutraceuticals, antimicrobials and dyes.

Food preservation and security are also concerns of Food Biotechnology. For this purpose, novel preservative technologies have been applied in the food industry, such as High Pressure Processing, Pulsed Electric Field, Cold Plasma, Ohmic Heating, and others.

Moreover, the world population has grown exponentially, which has led to an increase in food production globally, as well as its export. Consequently, diseases caused by food pathogens are a major public health problem worldwide. Biotechnology has also influenced this sector through the production of innovative pathogen detection tests, being the most popular:

1. Molecular tests - immunoassays or tests based on DNA and RNA;

2. Biosensors - analytical devices that incorporate reactive biological elements (probes and/or antibodies) in the detection of microorganisms.

References:

Sociedade Portuguesa de Biotecnologia, 2015, Biotecnologia Alimentar, serie 2, number 6, 1-48.

https://biotechnology.euroscicon.com/