Preface

After the advent of Organic Chemistry (1800’s), the supply for organic chemicals achieved industrial scale. This was particularly important for Food Industry, which soon incorporated synthetic substances for the preparation of food products: saccharin, benzoate and indigotine, for instance, were already in use at the beginning of 20^th century and are still applied today as food additives. However, public awareness involving the possible toxic effects of artificial ingredients has increased the demand for new alternative sources of their natural counterparts. Moreover, the impact of human activity on environment has been considered a major issue to be overcome, leading to intense search for sustainable or alternative production processes.Therefore, biotechnology has emerged as an important tool to supply natural ingredients for food industry, since they occur under controlled conditions, may use renewable sources and are recognized as an environmentally friendly technique.

Although such approach has been used empirically for the production of fermented food (bread, wine, beer, cheeses etc.) aiming at either preservation or modification of their sensory attributes, it was only recently that science begun to able to understand and explain the phenomenology behind these biotechnological processes, which reflected in an increased number of R&D projects for the production of food ingredients by microorganisms, enzymes of cell cultures.The fact is that, nowadays, the so-called White Biotechnology is considered an inextinguishable resource of natural food ingredients. Additionally, food biotechnology remains a vigorousresearch field and many fundamental studieson this subject are still needed. This may be evidenced by the intense growth, during the last decades, of articles and patents covering all aspects of biotechnological production of food ingredients. Most of these processes are already found in commercial scale, but others are still waiting for further developments.

This e-Book aims to be a fundamental reference for people who want to deepen into this field, particularly those students, scientists, researchers and professionals working with Food Science and Technology, Food Chemistry, Food Biotechnology, Food Engineering, Bioprocess Engineering, Biotechnology, Applied Microbiology, Nutrition and others. It is divided in 12 chapters. The first one presents a brief overview of food biotechnology, particularly those aspects involving and historical perspective and some examples of commercially relevant products and processes currently available. All other chapters are devoted each one to a particular class of products with potential interest for food or feed industries: sweeteners (Ch. 2), aminoacids and nucleotides (including flavor enhancers) (Ch. 3), organic acids (Ch. 4), vitamins and nutraceuticals (Ch. 5), aroma compounds (Ch. 6), colorants (Ch. 7), edible oils (Ch. 8), hydrocolloids (Ch. 9), antimicrobial compounds (Ch. 10), biosurfactants (Ch. 11) and enzymes (Ch. 12).

We hope you enjoy it!