AUTHOR=Ghosh Sreejita , Nag Moupriya , Lahiri Dibyajit , Sarkar Tanmay , Pati Siddhartha , Kari Zulhisyam Abdul , Nirmal Nilesh P. , Edinur Hisham Atan , Ray Rina Rani 

TITLE=Engineered Biofilm: Innovative Nextgen Strategy for Quality Enhancement of Fermented Foods

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.808630

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.808630

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=Microbial communities within fermented food (beers, wines, distillates, meats, fishes, cheeses, breads) products remain within biofilm, embedded in a complex extracellular polymeric matrix that provides favorable growth conditions to the indwelling species. Biofilm acts as the best ecological niche for the residing microbes by providing food ingredients that interact with the fermenting microorganisms’ metabolites and boost their growth. This leads to the alterations in the biochemical and nutritional quality compared to the initial ingredients in terms of antioxidants, peptides, organoleptic and probiotic properties, and antimicrobial activity. Microbes within the biofilm have altered genetic expression that may lead to novel biochemical pathways influencing their chemical and organoleptic properties related to consumer acceptability. Although microbial biofilms are always been linked to pathogenicity owing to its enhanced antimicrobial resistance, biofilm could be favorable for production of amino acids like L-proline, L-threonine by engineered bacteria. The unique characteristics of many traditional fermented foods are attributed by the biofilm formed by lactic acid bacteria and yeast and many a times multispecies biofilm can be successfully used for repeated-batch fermentation. The present review will shed light on current researches related to the role of biofilm in fermentation process with special reference to the recent applications of NGS/WGS/omics for improved biofilm forming ability of the genetically engineered and biotechnologically modified microorganisms to bring about the amelioration of the quality of fermented food.