First of all, all kinds of food additives can be made by biotechnology, which does not affect the nutritional value of food, and has the functions of preventing food from spoilage and enhancing the sensory characteristics of food. For example, citric acid produced by fermentation engineering has broken the situation that traditional souring agents only contain vinegar and lactic acid, and has become the first edible souring agent in modern food industry. In addition, L- malic acid produced by fermentation engineering is recognized as a safe food additive by the international food industry, and it is one of the first choice acidulants for processing jam, fruit juice, beverage and candy. In the production of sweeteners, asparagine synthesized by enzyme engineering method has two advantages over previous chemical synthesis methods: it does not produce bitter by-products, thus omitting the purification process; The consumption of raw materials is reduced, which can save about 30%. Fresh flavor agents made by fermentation engineering include uridylic acid and inosinic acid. When they are mixed with the traditional flavor agent monosodium glutamate, the flavor can be doubled.
Secondly, enzyme technology plays a great role in food processing. For example, the enzyme technology can tenderize the meat by coating the surface of the meat with enzyme or soaking the meat with enzyme solution, or injecting enzyme into the muscle before slaughtering the animal, thus softening and tenderizing beef and other meat with poor texture. The great functions of enzyme technology in dairy industry are as follows: adding egg white lysozyme to milk powder can prevent infant intestinal infection and make up for the shortage of bad ingredients in milk; Adding a proper amount of lipase in dairy processing can increase the flavor of butter, thus saving the amount of butter and improving the flavor; After milk is treated with lactase, lactose which is not sweet and difficult to digest and easily causes diarrhea and abdominal pain after drinking is decomposed into absorbable and useful substances. Adding enzymes to bread can make the pores of bread thinner and evenly distributed, thus making bread large in volume, good in elasticity and good in color; When brewing beer, adding neutral protease can decompose protein in raw materials, thus increasing the amino acid content in wort. Using glucoamylase instead of koji in liquor production can improve liquor yield, save grain, simplify equipment and save land.
Finally, in food hygiene, biotechnology has also made new contributions. Before food is put on the market, the quarantine department must strictly check the pollution of microorganisms and their toxins, but this kind of inspection often takes a long time, and biotechnology can be used to check it quickly and accurately. Among them, enzyme immunoassay, radioimmunoassay, monoclonal antibody method and DNA probe method are commonly used. In addition, biotechnology has also played a great role in food detoxification. For example, microbial treatment can remove glycosides (poisons that can cause goiter) from rapeseed, mustard seed and radish seed, and increase the fragrance and amino acid content of these oils; Adding an enzyme to bean products can remove toxic oligosaccharides that can cause flatulence, vomiting and diarrhea after eating.
In a word, biotechnology can not only develop new food resources, but also improve food quality. It plays a great role in food industry, and will help to solve food problems and improve food quality.