The progress made in the food industry by the development of applicative engineering and biotechnologies is impressive and many of the advances are oriented to solve the world crisis in a constantly growing population. Microorganisms possess an impressive role in supporting life, either separate or in consortia, by producing numerous useful molecules. Several industries have exploited the biochemical capability of microorganisms to synthesize, metabolize and transform valuable substances. Most of the available food ingredients, food nutraceuticals, additives, colourants and flavouring agents are produced by or with the help of microorganisms. Industrial by-products are certainly an economical source of natural compounds (e.g. polyphenols, carotenoids, sterols, tocopherols, vitamins, or dietary fibre), and recovery and recycling of these wastes via microbial route may contribute towards the sustainability of the industrial and food sectors. Moreover, their bioconversion may contribute to obtaining several value-added compounds, such as organic acids, omega 3, short-chain fatty acids, flavour agents, functional exopolysaccharides, nutraceuticals.
Waste bioconversion represents a supportive strategy in the current waste crisis and massive pollution of our planet. The use of microorganisms for value-added compounds production has gained increased attention, as complex natural products can be delivered from inexpensive raw materials on industrial scale. Moreover, the microbial engineering generate impressive yields and satisfied the consumers needs as they are considered "natural". The goal of the present Research Topic is to tackle the in situ microbial production by de novo biosynthesis of value-added compounds, such as flavors (vanillin), omega 3 (DHA), organic acids, etc., emergent for the food industry, and their characterization. The accent falls on the substrate used, as well on the performance of the microbial process, and different ways for process downstream.
This Research Topic encourages the submission of high-quality research articles and reviews covering the most recent advances in microbial biotechnology for the food industry. Building upon findings published in the
recent Topic Microbial Biotechnology Providing Bio-based Components for the Food Industry, we wish to emphasize the industrial application potential, in particular the current progress, actual concerns in the biotechnological field, and success of very recent technologies, such as bioengineering and fermentation.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
• De novo biosynthesis pathways:
(i) Most advanced methods in bioengineering: mutagenesis-based selection and genetic engineering (recombinant DNA technology)
(ii) Fermentation technology: solid-state fermentation, two-step bioconversion, batch culture, direct transformation
(iii) Enzymatic technology
(iv) Integrated pretreatments technology of waste/by-products substrates in microbial-derived food ingredients
(v) In situ microbial production of flavors and/or food compounds
• Microbial bio-transformation of by-products to produce food ingredients
• Extraction and purification techniques for in situ microbial-derived compounds
• Microbial-derived enzymes in the production of food ingredients