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SUMMARY
The use of enzymes or microorganisms in food preparations is an age-old process. With the advancement of technology, novel enzymes with wide range of applications and specificity have been developed and new application areas are still being explored. Microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and fungi and their enzymes are widely used in several food preparations for improving the taste and texture and they offer huge economic benefits to industries. Microbial enzymes are the preferred source to plants or animals due to several advantages such as easy, cost-effective and consistent production. The present review discusses the recent advancement in enzyme technology for food industries. A comprehensive list of enzymes used in food processing, the microbial source of these enzymes and the wide range of their application are discussed.
Key words: enzymes, food industry, brewing, baking, juice clarification
INTRODUCTION
Microorganisms have been used in food fermentation since ancient times and fermentation processes are still applied in the preparation of many of the food items (?). Microbial enzymes play a major role in food industries because they are more stable than plant and animal enzymes. They can be produced through fermentation techniques in a cost-effective manner with less time and space requirement, and because of their high consistency, process modification and optimization can be done very easily (2). Many of these enzymes find numerous applications in various industrial sectors, e.g. amylolytic enzymes find applications in food, detergent, paper and textile industries (3). They are used for the production of glucose syrups, crystalline glucose, high fructose corn syrups, maltose syrups, etc. In detergent industry, they are used as additives to remove starch-based stains. In paper industry, they are used for the reduction of starch viscosity for appropriate coating of paper (4). In textile industry, amylases are used for warp sizing of textile fibres (4). Similarly, enzymes like proteases, lipases or xylanases have wide applications in food sectors. The following sections give detailed and updated information about various food enzymes of microbial origin. Table 1 (5-36) gives an overview of applications of microbial enzymes in food industry.
a-AMYLASES
a-Amylases (EC 3.2.1.1) are starch-degrading enzymes capable of hydrolyzing a-1,4 glycosidic bonds of polysaccharides, which results in the production of short-chain dextrins (37). These enzymes are widely distributed in all...