Recent advances in synthetic biotechnological processes such as precision fermentation and enzyme & strain engineering are proving pivotal in the development of future sustainable nutrition.

And they are directly influencing many of the global challenges such as improving the efficiency of agricultural processes, reducing food waste and addressing consumer demands for healthier, more sustainable products without any compromise on taste.

Enzymes – Nature’s Biocatalysts Enable Sustainable Nutrition

On this sustainability journey, enzymes have become an increasing important ally due to their high efficiency, specificity and their ability to create a more efficient food system.

Used in food production for centuries and produced commercially since the mid-20th century, enzymes, as nature’s biocatalysts, are a multifaceted biotechnology for the food and beverage industry, enabling operational efficiencies, improving product quality, extending shelf life, valorizing waste streams, unlocking nutrients and more.

To maximise their impact, enzymes must be highly efficient & economically competitive in their industrial settings, this requires finely tuned biocatalysts that are not only robust and stable but highly selective under industrial process conditions.

And here lies the exciting part, scientists have only just reached the tip of the iceberg in understanding and exploiting the potential of enzymes.

Remarkably, only a tiny fraction of all potentially available enzymes from natural resources have been discovered and utilised to date.

When you couple this incredible potential with increased consumer focus on health, environment, sustainability and the ongoing research and innovation focus on enzymes optimisation, it is clear that the future of enzymes is to positively disrupt our food system by building a more efficient and sustainable food chain.

Image from: Industrial Enzyme Applications (2019)

To date, food and beverage manufacturers have utilised to great effect the power of well-known enzymes in application, but to truly transform food production, novel functionalities are required.

As a result, there is a new wave of directed evolutionary enzyme technology to deliver improved functionalities to new or existing enzymes, which enable food producers to create healthier, tastier products that have less impact on the environment.

For example, the food and beverage industry is now on an on-going quest for safer and cleaner methods to produce various compounds such as sweeteners, emulsifiers, pre- and postbiotics and fermented ingredients.

Inspired by the work of individuals such as Frances Arnold (2018 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry), this has triggered a focus on harnessing enzymes and enzymatic cascades that will complement or even replace bulk chemical ingredient and high energy processes with more natural and sustainable options.

Optimizing Enzymes through Bio-Engineering

Enzyme engineering allows the optimisation of enzyme properties through introduction of changes into the amino acid sequence of the protein.

These properties include enzyme activity, selectivity, stability as well as the appropriate substrate scope and concentration.

This begins with the use of enzyme variant libraries which are analysed in a high-throughput format for the desired properties.

Bioinformatics is used to design genes, analyze structural and sequence information and finally store the data sequence and function in a database.  The latter allows us to learn from the gathered data using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Using this variant information coupled with molecular biological methods in hand, it is possible to train microbial strains, which grow to high cell densities in large fermentation vessels to produce an enzyme from a different origin to high titers.

Several host organisms from bacterial, yeast and fungal kingdom have developed enzyme production strains. They differ in their capability for the functional production of a foreign enzyme, which depends on the source and nature of the enzyme.

As there is no universal production strain, an enzyme producer needs a portfolio of different strains and the expertise to cultivate them to high densities and to maximise enzyme production.

Challenges to Accept GM Technologies

However, there are many challenges regarding the implementation and acceptance of such technological developments.

One such challenge will be the opinion of the consumer, who ultimately needs to be convinced that future food will be in some part produced by engineered microorganisms.

Interestingly the utilization of engineered non-wild-type microorganisms may sound futuristic but there are already many examples of commercial products from engineered microbes. For example, in food production, engineered microbes can be used to produce specific enzymes to help degrade acrylamide in coffee extracts or to more efficiently produce natural high-intensity sweeteners from plants.

These examples illustrate the potential for balancing traditional food fermentation practices and modern biotechnologies.

As new enzymes are brought into the food chain, the requirements to meeting food safety regulations is of key and growing concern.

Additionally, the rapid and continuous improvement of genomic technologies which are used to characterise and classify production strains (future and current) will significantly impact the regulatory landscape regarding their use in food, feed and beverage applications.

The dynamic landscape of sustainable nutrition is being reshaped by the remarkable strides in enzyme and strain engineering, as well as precision fermentation technologies.

The potential for these advancements to revolutionise food and beverage production is substantial, with the promise of enhanced efficiency in agricultural processes, reduced food waste and the creation of healthier, more sustainable products that cater to evolving consumer preferences.

As we navigate the challenges associated with the acceptance of genetically modified technologies and ensure compliance with stringent food safety regulations, the ongoing collaboration between scientists, bioengineers and regulatory bodies will be pivotal.

The fusion of enzyme engineering with cutting-edge bioinfomatic approaches opens new frontiers for the creation of novel enzymes, paving the way for a future where sustainable nutrition is not just a goal but a reality.

Enzymes are proteins produced by all living organisms.  They are biological catalysts which conduct all biochemical reactions.

This is a natural part of physiological processes essential for growth and allow life.  When your body wants to transform food such as starch in bread or pasta into energy enzymes are used to convert the starch to simple sugars which can be used by your cells. 

Enzymes are efficient, and specific performing typically only one defined reaction over and over again.  The fact that they come from nature means that they act at specific pH and temperature conditions/ranges, which make them sustainable and biodegradable alternatives to chemical processing in the food industry.

Industrial enzymes can be extracted from plants or produced by microbial fermentation and purified.

Why are Enzymes in Food?

Enzymes have been used in food production for thousands of years.  Our early ancestors discovered that cows stomach could turn milk into cheese. 

Today, we use enzymes in food to manufacture of everything from bread, wine, beer, juice and dairy processing and much more besides.

In the bakery industry, different type of enzymes can be used as a natural way to keep bread softer for longer, enhance dough tolerance during processing or allow for reduction the egg content.

Enzymes also enable manufacturers to use local grains like cassava to make beer and make dairy products suitable for those with lactose intolerance.

Sustainability Benefits of Enzymes in Bakery

In the bakery industry, different type of enzymes are a natural way to optimize raw material performance despite varying/seasonal quality, enhancing manufacturing efficiencies, softness, moistness, antistaling or desirably sensory properties of baked goods over extended shelf life, reducing additives and energy usage, food loss and food waste, with sustainability benefits.

A recent environmental footprint estimated calculation found that (www.epa.gov) just 1 loaf of bread releases 1.15kg of CO2 emissions and uses 194L of water, which is equivalent to the same CO2 emissions from fully charging 140 smart phones and 2 average daily showers. 

Delving deeper into food waste, according to United nations environment programme up to 10% of GHG are linked to uneaten food, and 30% of all food produced in wasted, costing the global economy over $900 billion per year.

More especially the various type of bakery enzymes are offering different functionalities. Maltogenic amylase allows to keep bread softer for longer, to extend shelf life, by improving product sensory characteristics and appearance over longer shelf life, prolonging the onset of staling characteristics and reducing likelihood of food being wasted at home.

Xylanases are known to improve dough tolerance during processing. Asparaginase, to make baked good healthier by reducing the acrylamide content.

Some phospholipases allow to successfully reduces egg content by up in fine bakery applications such as muffins, stirred cakes, whipped cakes, croissants, donuts and brioche, with no change in dough handling or crumb structure versus a full egg recipe, eggs being crucial to bakers because of their specific functional properties and unique contribution to finished product sensory attributes: texture, softness, crumb structure, taste, including “binding”, “aeration”, “emulsification” and “colour”.

How Can Enzymes be Used for Nutrition & Health?

Digestive Enzymes – Reducing Lactose Intolerance Symptoms with Lactase

Lactose, the sugar found in dairy products, can cause problems like bloating and other gastrointestinal discomforts in people with lactose intolerance.

Lactose intolerance affects a significant amount of people worldwide, especially in places where dairy farming is not common. The incidence of lactose intolerance can be as high as 75% of the population in these areas.

Enzymes can help lactose intolerant individuals enjoy dairy products with minimal side effects. Lactose is a sugar made of two smaller sugars: galactose and glucose (see figure below). 

These sugars have a greater relative sweetness than lactose meaning that lactose free or low-lactose products that have been made with the lactase enzyme are sweeter in taste than those not treated with lactase. 

In the food industry this can allow dairy products like yoghurt to be made with a reduced amount of added sugar but with the same taste profile.

Lactase is an enzyme that cleaves lactose into these two smaller sugars, neither of which cause the negative side effects of lactose in those with lactose intolerance.  This is why you see the ingredient ‘lactase’ in lactose-free milks, for example.

Digestive Enzymes – Helping Infants Digest Formula

It is recommended by the world health organisation that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life so as to give the infant the greatest chance of achieving optimal growth, development and health, but for cases where this is not realistic or possible, infant formula is required.

Some infants have a hard time digesting certain types of formula, but enzymes can help in a few ways.

Comfort Protein – Infant Milk Formula (IMF)

Comfort infant formulas are made with partially hydrolysed milk proteins which are marketed as “easier to digest” infant formula made from cows milk. 

These formulas can be produced using natural enzymes, called proteases, which target proteins and are derived from animal, plant or microbial sources. 

Hydrolysis of milk proteins by proteases results in the formation of smaller peptides which are reported to be more readily digested than intact proteins. 

In particular, parents of infants suffering from conditions such as colic, cite the use of comfort protein as reducing the severity of symptoms.

Hypoallergenic Formulas (IMF)

Most common IMFs use cow’s milk as a base, but a small percentage of infants are born with cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA). 

Formulas sold to address this condition can be divided into two types – those which are extensively hydrolysed (peptide-based) and those which are amino acid based.

Extensively hydrolysed proteins for this application are produced via enzymatic hydrolysis where the protease enzyme extensively breaks down the structure of the whey and/or casein protein to smaller peptides.

From the American Academy of Family Physicians:  “Hypoallergenic formulas contain extensively hydrolyzed proteins that are less likely to stimulate antibody production. Infants with milk protein allergy fed hypoallergenic formula have slightly greater weight gain during the first year than infants fed standard formula. In addition, many infants show improvement in atopic symptoms. A few infants continue to have symptoms despite switching to hypoallergenic formula; nonallergenic amino acid–based formulas are effective for these rare cases.”

Enzymes for the Plant-Based Trend

The market for nutritional beverage is growing and cereal based beverages such as Horlicks, Bournvita, etc. have traditionally been very popular in certain markets.

The plant-based beverage market has continued to grow with milk-alternatives like soy or oat milk.

Enzymes are often used to help make these beverages more acceptable to consumers.  For example, plant-based beverages like oat or rice milk can have poor emulsion stability, meaning products might separate out over their shelf life instead of remaining a consistent mixture.

Enzymes like amylase can help improve stability of the product.  Much like lactase, amylase can also reduce the need for added sugar because the products of starch hydrolysis are sweeter than the starch itself.

If high viscosity is caused by high molecular weight (Mw) beta-glucan, as in the case of a beverage like oat milk, beta-glucanase can be used to make an easier to process, less viscous product.

However, since beta-glucan is the fiber associated with health benefits in oats, cleaving beta glucan with an enzyme would likely reduce the potential health benefit. If health benefits and fiber content are a focus, beta glucanase may not be the best solution.

Making Plant-Based Protein Hydrolysates Taste Better

With the rise in demand for plant-based proteins, there has been an increased demand for inexpensive plant-derived protein hydrolysates, owing to their significant potential in nutritional applications.

Hydrolysed plant protein (HPP) is most commonly produced via the enzymatic hydrolysis of a plant protein source such as soy, wheat, rice, sunflower, potato and alternative pulse proteins, and are used in a wide variety of food applications such as protein fortified bars and beverages.

Protease enzymes are most commonly used in the production of HPPs and under controlled conditions are used maximise protein yields from different plant sources and also to improve taste and sensory attributes.

From a commercial standpoint, plant proteins maintain unique taste attributes, and today’s HPP products are synonymous with bitter, unpleasant tastes often attributed to a high concentration of hydrophobic free amino-acids, smaller peptides and volatile compounds in the HPP mixture.

Enzymatic hydrolysis, both pre- and post-hydrolysis can help to significantly improve these undesirable sensory properties of HPPs.

This article was originally published on 15 September 2020. It was updated 19 June 2023 to reflect new information.