Application of Cellulase in Food Industry

As people pay more and more attention to food safety, nutrition, health and deliciousness, food is not only to meet people's basic needs for survival, but the food industry is developing in a safer, more nutritious and delicious direction. Therefore, enzyme, as a high-efficiency biocatalyst, is replacing traditional chemical agents with its unique advantages, and is being used more and more widely in the food industry. The enzyme industry has become one of the most promising emerging industries in our country.

Cellulase is a general term for a group of enzymes that can hydrolyze cellulose into glucose. The source of cellulase is very wide. In addition to fungi, various protozoa, roundworms, mollusks, earthworms, crustaceans, insects, algae, fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes can produce cellulase.

Application of cellulase

1. Soy sauce brewing

Soy sauce is a hydrolysate of soybean protease. Soy sauce brewing mainly uses enzymes such as protease and amylase to hydrolyze raw materials. If cellulase is used again, the cell membranes of raw materials such as soybeans can be expanded, softened, and destroyed, and the proteins and carbohydrates contained in the cells can be released. This can shorten the brewing time, increase the yield, improve the quality of the product, and increase the amino acid reducing sugar content of the product.

2. Beer production

In the beer production process, the use of cellulase enzymes can convert starch and cellulose into sugar, which are then completely converted into alcohol by yeast decomposition. The wine yield can be increased by 3% to 5%, and the utilization rate of starch and cellulose can be as high as 90%. Using cellulase to hydrolyze brewer's grains, and effectively utilize the enzymatic hydrolysate and residues separately, can greatly improve the economic and environmental benefits of brewer's grains.

3. Fruit and vegetable processing

In the process of fruit and vegetable processing, in order to soften plant tissues, methods such as heating and cooking, acid and alkali treatment are generally used, which will cause loss of flavor and vitamins. Treatment of fruits and vegetables with cellulase can avoid the above-mentioned shortcomings, and at the same time can make plant tissues soft and bulky, thereby improving their digestibility and improving taste.

4. Tea processing

The traditional production process of instant tea is to steep the tea leaves in boiling water to extract the effective ingredients in the tea cells, such as amino acids, sugar, caffeine, saponins, tea polyphenols, tea aroma components and pigments, etc., and then freeze-dry them at low temperature. If the tea is properly treated with cellulase, it can lower the temperature of immobilized enzyme production, shorten the extraction time, improve the taste of instant tea, and increase the yield.

5. Oil crop processing

Cellulase also plays a very important role in oil crop processing. Traditionally, the squeezing method or the organic solvent method has been used to produce oil products, which have poor product quality, low yield, long operating time, and organic solvent residues are inevitable. Using enzyme treatment method instead of organic solvent method can improve the output and quality of oil on the one hand. On the other hand, by controlling the enzyme reaction conditions, the production and processing can be carried out under milder conditions, which can avoid the impact of severe conditions on product quality. Therefore, the use of enzyme technology in the field of agricultural product processing can not only increase the yield of the main product, but also reduce the generation of by-products and reduce waste treatment costs.

Enzymes have been widely used in the food industry. It can be expected that with the rapid development of biotechnology itself, especially the application of genetic engineering technology, the types of enzyme preparations that can be used in food will greatly increase. On the one hand, people's requirements for food varieties and quality are constantly increasing, and the application of enzyme preparations will make great progress. Among them, the use of enzyme preparations to produce functional foods with health benefits will be an important research field. On the other hand, people's expectations for food safety are getting higher and higher, which brings new opportunities for the application of enzymatic technology in food testing, and new developments are expected in the future.