Biotransformation and its applications in food science

Throughout the history of mankind, microorganisms have been of enormous social and economic importance and they were used in various food and beverage production. In the course of time, it was found that microorganisms could modify certain compounds by simple, chemically well-defined reactions, which were further catalyzed by enzymes that these processes are called “biotransformation”. Biotransformation carried out by biocatalysts including whole cell or isolated enzymes. The advantages of using biocatalysts are high purity of product, minimal side reactions and operation at mild conditions. Biotransformation is used in several applications such as natural flavor production, detoxification of toxic component such as aflatoxin and bioconversion of some ingredients to their active forms. One of major application of biotransformation is biotechnological production of some product that often synthesized chemically. Production of these by biotechnological methods can be a proper answer to consumer demand about natural product and green process.