Understanding the functional properties of microbial proteins

为了应对日益增长的人口和环境足迹问题，食品、饲料和相关化学部门对可持续蛋白质的需求不断增长。这导致了对动物来源以外的其他蛋白质来源的需求。来自微生物生物量的单细胞蛋白质（scp）显示出帮助填补蛋白质缺口的潜力，同时还提供微量营养素和其他健康益处。几个世纪以来，细菌、真菌（如酵母）和微藻菌株已被安全地用于食品和饲料应用，并正在探索作为替代蛋白质的来源。因此，了解这些scp在功能和口感方面的工作机制是很重要的。这项工作旨在回顾目前对scp的技术功能性能的理解，并指出该领域的知识差距。文献的初步发现表明，来自细菌、微藻和酵母的整个微生物细胞可以作为胶体颗粒来稳定皮克林乳剂(1)。尽管对藻类生物量的界面特性和流变学等功能性能进行了大量的研究，但对其他微生物来源（如酵母）的scp的研究基本上尚未开展。更重要的是，从酵母等替代来源获得的scp的摩擦学和口感性能很少被研究。在这些生物质可以用于制造低排放食品以满足不断增长的人口的营养需求，同时确保粮食安全和地球健康之前，有必要对scp的理化、机械和感官特性进行详细调查。通过探索它们的作用机制，它们的应用范围可以扩大到化学部门的其他相关领域。

There is growing demand for sustainable protein across the food, feed and allied chemical sector in response to increasing population and environmental footprint concerns. This had led to a demand for alternative sources of proteins, other than those from animal origin. Single-cell proteins (SCPs) from microbial biomass show potential to help fill the protein gap while also providing micronutrients and other health benefits. Strains of bacteria, fungi (such as yeast) and microalgae have been used safely in food and feed applications for centuries and are being explored as sources of alternate proteins. Hence, it is important to understand how these SCPs work mechanistically in terms of functional and mouthfeel performance. This work aims to review the current understanding of techno-functional performance of SCPs and pinpoint the knowledge gap in the field.Preliminary findings from literature reveal that whole microbial cells from bacteria, microalgae and yeast can function as colloidal particles to stabilise Pickering emulsions (1). Although extensive work on functional performance such as interfacial property and rheology have been carried out on algal biomass, work on SCPs from other microbial origin such as yeast remain principally unexplored. More importantly, the tribological and mouthfeel performance of SCPs from alternative sources such as those of yeast are rarely investigated. Detailed investigation of physio-chemical, mechanical and sensorial properties of SCPs is necessary before such biomass can be used to create low emission foods to tackle nutrition demands of growing population, while also ensuring food security and planetary health. By exploring their mechanism of action, their range of application can be broadened to other allied areas in the chemical sector.