eChapters

Abstract

Fermentation technology holds immense promise in diverse fields. It offers opportunities for sustainable biofuel production, allowing us to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and promote a greener energy sector. In the pharmaceutical industry, fermentation plays a vital role in manufacturing antibiotics, enzymes, vaccines, and therapeutic proteins, paving the way for more efficient and cost-effective production processes. Furthermore, fermentation can be harnessed for waste management and environmental remediation, enabling the transformation of organic waste into valuable biogas. With ongoing advancements, fermentation technology continues to open new avenues for innovation and contribute to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious future. The present chapter compares types of fermentation process as well as gives an insight into various industrial prospects of fermentation technology.

Abstract

Enzyme is a highly efficient catalyst that is produced by active cells. When compared to chemical catalysts; enzymes have a number of benefits, including high specificity, high catalytic efficiency and flexible activity, all of which greatly help to promote their use in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and food sectors. The majority of enzymes such as protease, amylase, lipase and cellulase are relatively unstable and industrial uses are frequently restricted by a lack of long-term operational stability as well as the technically challenging recovery process and ruse of the enzyme. Enzyme immobilization provides an excellent base for increasing enzyme availability to the substrate with higher turnover over a long period of time. Enzyme immobilization are done by several methods and their performance are influenced by many factors. Physical and chemical based immobilization are the most commonly used methods. The matrix immobilizes the enzyme by holding it permanently or temporarily for a short stretch of time. The generally used matrixes for immobilizations includes natural, synthetic polymers and inorganic compounds.Currently, synergistic interactions of biotechnology and nanotechnology are useful for the development of immobilized enzymes. Enzyme immobilization is a commonly used technology in a variety of industries including food, pharmaceuticals, bioremediation, detergents, and textiles due to technical and economical advantages. This chapter focuses on most commonly used immobilized techniques in industry with many recent applications of immobilized enzymes.

Abstract

In biocatalysis, isolated enzymes, enzyme mixtures, immobilized enzymes or microbes (enzymes that are still present within the living cells) are used to perform chemical transformation of organic compounds into novel compounds. Both in academia and across chemical and pharmaceutical industry, biocatalysts are used as isolated preparations or in whole cell format or as recombinant proteins produced in alternate host cells. Biocatalysts catalyze novel small molecule transformations that are usually difficult or impossible using traditional synthetic organic chemistry. Biocatalysts exhibit high chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity towards their substrates. As a result, the use of biocatalysts during chemoenzymatic synthesis minimizes the issues of unwanted side-reactions such as decomposition, isomerization, racemization and rearrangement. The process of biocatalysis has become an important tool in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and enantiopure compounds. Biocatalysis offers a more sustainable, efficient, and less polluting methods for the production of APIs and advanced pharmaceutical intermediates. Biocatalysts have received tremendous attention in pharmaceutical industry because they typically catalyze reactions under mild conditions, so they do not consume much energy or emit much greenhouse gas. Biocatalysts are currently employed for the development of products in different fields, such as pharmaceuticals or intermediates of their production (e.g., antibiotics, statins, and enantiopure building blocks), fine chemicals (e.g., amino acids and vitamins), and food ingredients (e.g., sweeteners, lipids, and nutraceuticals). However, it would be helpful for the pharmaceutical industry to take advantage of developments in biochemistry, molecular cloning, random and site-directed mutagenesis, advanced tools for enzyme discovery, enzyme-directed evolution, high-throughput laboratory evolution techniques for biocatalyst optimization, immobilization, and fermentation technology to gain access to a new class of biocatalysts (enzymes), cells and other microbes.

Abstract

The natural color of foods is due primarily to carotenoids, anthocyanins, betanin and chlorophylls, either as inherent food constituents or as food or feed additives. These compounds have drawn considerable attention in recent years, not because of their coloring properties, but due to their potential health-promoting effects. Their occurrence and levels in foods, along with the factors that influence the composition, have been widely investigated. Processing effects have been actively studied. In spite of the intense search for plant and microbial sources and efforts to increase yield, few natural food color additives have reached the market. Developing new colors for the food industry is challenging, as colorants need to be compatible with a food flavors, safety, and nutritional value, and which ultimately have a minimal impact on the price of the product. In addition, food colorants should preferably be natural rather than synthetic compounds. Micro-organisms already produce industrially useful natural colorants such as carotenoids and anthocyanins. Microbial food colorants can be produced at scale at relatively low costs. This chapter highlights the significance of color in the food industry, why there is a need to shift to natural food colors compared to synthetic ones and how using microbial pigments as food colorants, instead of colors from other natural sources, is a preferable option.

Abstract

Starch is an important plant-based product and an abundant biomaterial, used worldwide for different purposes in many industrial sectors including food, health, chemical and engineering sector. Starch versatility in industrial applications is largely defined by its physicochemical properties and functionality. Starch in its native form has limited functionality and application but advancements in technological processing have led to the wide-range modification of starch for different purposes. It can be easily degraded by microorganisms hence is a natural source of bioenergy in the form of bioethanol and biohydrogen as well as in the development of biodegradable packaging materials. Various technological interventions can significantly improve the characteristics of native starch and be tailor-made to the specific needs of the packaging and food industry. Native starch can be treated by various methods to modify its characteristics. Modification improves starch paste clarity, viscosity, syneresis and freeze-thaw stability leading to a wide range of food applications. Esterification lowers gelatinization temperature and retrogradation lowers the tendency to form gel and higher paste clarity which shows applications in refrigerated and frozen foods, as emulsion stabilizers and for encapsulation. Cross-linking increases the stability of granules towards swelling, high temperature, high shear, and acidic conditions. Starch-based nano-composite polymers have their application in coating and packaging of food as well as non food commodities. Techniques involving extrusion, casting, spinning, and nanotechnology can be used in the production of films, foams, and nanocomposite materials. Due to the unique characteristics of resistant starch, it is being used as a valuable supplement in the formulation of drugs, pharmaceuticals, various functional foods and in the microencapsulation of probiotics and bioactive compounds.

Abstract

Dietary fibre concentrates (DFC) are the major component of fruit by-products generated during the processing at commercial level. These are the blessings for human gut health along with many other positive health benefits. Fruit by-products are the so-called nuisance for the environment that enfolds numerous positive signs inside. Lignin, cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectin, waxes, mucilage’s, oligosaccharide, gums and many other associated compounds are the part of DFCs. These DFCs when taken in the form of functional ingredient reaches to the colonic microbiota and consequently provides them a healthy growth medium that promotes the cell metabolism upto 67%, enhances the growth of good gut bacteria like Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. This article enlightens the content of DFCs in various fruit by-products that shows their prebiotic potential.

Abstract

Bioprocessing is much greener than chemical methods, since biocatalysts (enzymes or cells) involved are extremely selective, producing higher product yield with less or no by products, which are basically difficult to separate. Biotechnology can offer both economic and environmental benefits to the chemical industry and thus has great potential to achieve the sustainable production of existing and new products from renewable feedstocks. Fuel and energy production from biomass are major market sector for bioprocessing. They are considered in the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals, food, food additives, chemicals, and several other products. Generally, a bioprocess involves feedstock pretreatment, fermentation or biocatalysis, and downstream processing for obtaining product and its purification. It is explored for the production of xylitol, fatty alcohol, butanol and biorefinery. Deep understanding of the process is required to create robust control strategy. Based on the requirements, sophisticated instrumentation and complex control laws or simple control law having intricate monitoring system can be selected. Supercritical fluids (SCFs) are advantageous for bioprocessing due to its transport properties, high diffusivity and low viscosity facilitate mass transfer phenomena, variation of pressure and/or temperature are adjusted providing high flexibility in the extraction of metabolites from cells. Microfluidic devices in which small amounts of fluids (10^-9 and 10^-18) are manipulated have emerged for high throughput applications. Automation of the optimization processes is enabled through microtiter plates with simplicity and operate with very small volumes. Therefore, more research is necessary to develop integrated processes that will allow combining one or more techniques to enhance bioprocessing at lower costs.

Product Characteristics and Packaging Requirements:

The key raw materials for sugar confectionery are sugar (60 - 65%), glucose, citric acid and flavoured essences. Confectionery is hygroscopic in nature and requires protection against the ingress of moisture, and exposure to high temperature (as far as possible).

A candy or confectionery product may be adversely affected by many things. Hard candy, brittles and crunch products are most sensitive to moisture and absorb water vapour fairly rapidly from the atmosphere. Various gums are less sensitive while some creams tend to lose moisture considerably.

This process involves building up a coating of sugar and sometimes of other things, layer by layer. Panning is one of those processes that the confectionery and pharmaceutical industries have in common.

The coating of confectionery with sugar using a pan is very ancient. Originally, these products were made in an open pan suspended over a fire by chains. Apparently the operator swung the pan by hand, coating the product with sugar syrup which was then allowed to crystallise. The normal modern small-scale method is to use a rotating dragee pan (Fig.No.19.1).

These are elliptical vessels made traditionally of copper, but now more commonly of stainless steel. The pan is equipped to be rotated and usually there is a system for supplying and extracting air and possibly with a system for spraying in the sugar syrup. Typical pan sizes are between 1.5 and 0.9 m in diameter although smaller sizes are used for small-scale work.

These products were originally flavoured with the herb marshmallow but a modem marshmallow is a foam that has been stabilised by a gelling agent. The traditional material for marshmallows is egg albumen which acts both as a foaming and gelling agent - this gives light, soft gel. Gelatine is now more commonly used, and once again can act as both a whipping and gelling agent. A gelatine marshmallow is soft and rubbery but heavier than an egg albumen one. Further gelling agents, e.g., pectin, agar and starch all give a soft, short textured gel. These gelling agents have the advantage of being vegetable products but have the disadvantage of normally needing a whipping agent as well. Enzyme-modified soya products have also recently become available for this use.

Methods of Marshmallow Manufacturing:

Tabletting is the area where sugar confectionery and pharmaceutical manufacture come closest, as the machines are similar the process can also be similar. Confectioners normally try to make tablets as hard as possible whereas pharmaceutical tablets are normally made to be fairly soft.

Tablets are made by compressing a powder in a die. Under pressure the powder fuses and is ejected as a tablet. The problem of tabletting is to produce a powder that will flow freely when poured into the die but bonds satisfactorily when compressed. Some materials are available in a directly compressible form. One example is sorbitol, which goes some way to explain the popularity of pressed sorbitol tablets with manufacturers. If directly compressible materials are not being used then the material must be granulated before being tabletted.

Granulation

Tabletting materials can be prepared by a number of different methods as outlined below:

Lozenges are solid preparations that contain one or more medicaments, usually in a flavored, sweetened base, that are intended to dissolve or disintegrate slowly in the mouth. They can be prepared by molding (gelatin and/or fused sucrose and sorbitol base) or by compression of sugar-based tablets. Molded lozenges are sometimes referred to as pastilles, whereas compressed lozenges may be referred to as troches. They are used for patients who cannot swallow solid oral dosage forms well as for medications designed to be released slowly to yield a constant level of drug in the oral cavity or to bathe the throat tissues in a solution of the drug. Lozenges historically have been used for the relief of minor sore throat pain and irritation and have been used extensively to deliver topical anaesthetics and antibacterial.

Advantages

1. It is easy to administer to both paediatric and geriatric patients.
2. It has a pleasant taste and will extend the time a quantity of drug remains in the oral cavity to elicit local activity.

15.1 Fondant

The word fondant is said to come from the French verb fondre to dissolve. Confectionery fondants are normally made by boiling a sugar and glucose syrup in order to concentrate it before the mixture is cooled with beating to produce fine sucrose crystals. Some fondants used in baking are made by mixing icing sugar with a sucrose and glucose mixture. The icing sugar has a small particle size because it has been milled whereas the sucrose in a crystallised fondant has small crystals. It is possible to make a fondant using dextrose instead of sucrose. Crystalline dextrose has a positive heat of solution, i.e. heat is absorbed, and this produces a marked cooling effect which goes well with a peppermint flavour, but one which is not particularly attractive economically, but they can be in some other countries.

The art in producing high-boiled sweets with satisfactory shelf life is manufacturing boilings which contain the minimum amount of residual moisture and a satisfactory balance between cane or beet sugar, and glucose syrup or invert sugar syrup. The main physical change during the storage of high-boiled sweets is the formation of small crystals in the confection, usually referred to as graining, due to recrystallisation of sucrose. These spoil the appearance and cause an unpleasant roughness on the tongue.

For high-boiled sweets it is impossible, using the normal proportions of cane or beet sugar (sucrose) and glucose syrup, to obtain a product of 97% solids content, which is not supersaturated with respect to sucrose.

In practice, however, one-and-a-half parts of sugar (sucrose) to one part of forty-two DE glucose syrup will produce a high-boiled sweet stable against graining.

Chocolate is almost unique as a food in that it is solid at normal room temperatures yet melts easily within the mouth. This is because the main fat in it, which is called cocoa butter, is essentially solid at temperatures below 25^oC when it holds all the solid sugar and cocoa particles together. This fat is, however, almost entirely liquid at body temperature, enabling the particles to flow past one another, so the chocolate becomes a smooth liquid when it is heated in the mouth. Chocolate also has a sweet taste that is attractive to most people.

The first known cocoa plantations were established by the Maya in the lowlands of south Yucatan about 600 AD. Cocoa trees were being grown by the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru when the Europeans discovered central America. The beans were highly prized and used as money as well as to produce a drink known as chocolatl. The beans were roasted in earthenware pots and crushed between stones, sometimes using decorated heated tables and mill stones, similar to those illustrated in Figure 1.1.

The development of a recipe for chocolate should be based on three criteria:

(i) The intended market or use;

(ii) The limitation being placed on material and production costs;

(iii) The desired quality.

The amount of fat present in the chocolate will affect the flow properties, and fat content must therefore be varied according to the intended use.

Some point to remember while manufacturing chocolate:

1. To maintain proper viscosity if fat content is increased then sugar content should also be increased.
2. Milk chocolate requires lower fat content than dark chocolate.
3. Addition of emulsifier like commercial lecithin can save upto 5% of added cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter, also called the obroma oil, is a pale-yellow, edible fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, as well as some ointments, toiletries, and pharmaceuticals. Cocoa butter has a cocoa flavor and aroma. Its melting point is just below human body temperature. Cocoa butter that has been refined by neutralization with an alkaline solution and decoloured with for example bentonite, activated carbon etc. Subsequent deodorization can also be applied. The type of process used may affect the quality of the cocoa butter. For example, a too high deodorization temperature or a too severe alkalization can completely alter its setting (solidification) characteristics. High-quality raw materials are needed to make the best quality cocoa butter. The other important factors for high quality are the origin of the beans and the processing conditions used. Press cocoa butter, which is most commonly used in the chocolate industry, is only filtered and (partly) deodorized to obtain the desired flavour. Cocoa butter contains a high proportion of saturated fats as well as monounsaturated oleic acid, which typically occurs in each triglyceride.

Dried Cocoa Bean have chemical composition as: The shell (testa) represents 10-14% dry weight of the cocoa bean, while the kernel or cotyledon is made up of most of the remaining 86-90%. The cotyledon confers characteristic flavours and aromas of chocolate and is composed of two types of parenchyma storage cells.

Before processing, the quality ofbeans is evaluated for the following indicators:

1. Degree of fermentation
2. Moisture content (maximum 6%)
3. Number of defects
4. Number of broken beans
5. Bean count (number per 100 g)

Introduction

Botanical name of cocoa is Theobroma cacao and family is Malvaceae. The cocoa bean, also cacao bean or simply cocoa or cacao, is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter are extracted. Cocoa flavour is the most distinct feature of chocolate, thus cocoa beans are the basis of chocolate. Dried cocoa beans are usually processed into cocoa butter, which contains fat between 56% and 58%, made up of a mixture of triglycerides. Cocoa butter with this composition is good for making chocolate and has favourable hardness and a melting point of body temperature. Theobroma cacao originated from the Jungle of the Amazon in Brazil. Theobroma cacao consists of two subspecies: the Cacao, a subspecies known as the Criollo, which can be found in Central and South America, and spharocarpum, which is also called theForastero. The Criollo has superior and fine flavour. The pods are red and the beans have no color. Forastero has a green pod

A glucose syrup is defined as ‘A purified and concentrated aqueous solution of nutritive saccharides derived from starch’, and having the following characteristics:

1. Dry matter of not less than 70%.
2. A dextrose equivalent (DE), expressed as d-glucose, of not less than 20% based on dry matter.
3. A sulphated ash content of not more than 1% on a dry basis.

Starch has a DE value of zero, whilst dextrose, the final end product of starch hydrolysis, has a DE value of 100. For the lay person, the term dextrose equivalent or DE can be regarded as an indication of how far the conversion process from starch to dextrose has gone. While technically DE is a measure of the total reducing sugars present in a glucose syrup.