Page 19 - FoodFocusThailand No.208 JULY 2023

SPECIAL FOCUS

Modern Food Biotechnology:

Industrial Scale Value-Added Solutions

Humans have known about biotechnology for thousands of years. Biotechnology is the process of utilizing
living organisms to develop the process or products for maximum benefit. Currently, food biotechnology
has changed according to the era to meet the needs of consumers while maintaining quality and safety
by improving the quality of food and beverage, such as increasing nutritional content, improving sensory
properties, and prolonging shelf life, etc.

Nowadays, biotechnology is being used to develop more by developing a production process from food-grade
synthetic food and is expected to grow at a rate of 7% CARG microbial cell mass in a pilot plant that can be formed
through 2023-2032, especially meat replacements. It can into various quality and safe food products and the
synthesize the required nutrients efficiently and precisely. development of cider vinegar from Thai fruits, such as
Synthetic processes are different from natural processes that fermented vinegar from mangosteen and pineapple by
consume a lot of resources and time, including difficulty using microbial starter culture that reduces the
controlling production quality. For example, Air-based Protein fermentation process to single-step.
from the United States uses Hydrogenotrophic bacteria to In addition, modern food biotechnology has been
produce high-quality protein powder and other nutrients from developed in a wide range of food industries, such as
the air, which can be transformed into meat replacements selecting beneficial microbial strains and producing
products, or Ava Winery, which turns water into quality wine in functional compounds, the technology of a simulated gut
15 minutes by studying the molecular composition of wine model of the digestive system in the stomach, small
which consist of amino acids, sugars, and various organic intestine, colonic absorption, etc.
compounds that were brought to be synthesized from the Therefore, Food Focus Thailand magazine has
laboratory. compiled interesting research results on food biotech-
The National Center for Genetic Engineering and nology, as mentioned above, to reveal the success of
Biotechnology (BIOTEC), under the National Science and research and development in science and biotechnology
Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) in Thailand, has and lead to the creation of value-added products from
promoted the development of research results and transfer limited resources as well as driving the bio-economy of
technology to the private sector to apply biotechnology Thailand.
systematically at the industrial level. The successful researches
on a commercial scale are meat substitutes from mycoprotein

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