Recent trends in biocatalysis and its application in the food industry

Food industries have exploited enzymes as green catalysts because enzymes from microbial, animal, or plants origins offer unsurpassed physiochemical, biological, and biocatalytic functionalities that allow biocatalysis with selectivity and specificity in converting raw materials. Enzyme-catalyzed processing has been used to extract bioactive substances, improve sensory, flavor, and texture features, generate nutrient-rich foods, and eradicate food safety hazards. Enzymes give various benefits over traditional catalytic agents regarding process efficiency, sustainability, reusability, and cost-effective ratio. Over the years, some technologies have been used and optimized in order to improve biocatalysis for industrial applications. Multienzyme catalytic cascade based on a combination of enzymes offers diverse prospects in biosynthesis, biocatalysis, and biotransformation. Enzyme immobilization has allowed robustness and optimal functions in extreme industrial environments (e.g., high temperature) with no activity loss. In addition to that, protein engineering has provided exceptional tools for designing and producing novel biocatalysts with improved properties at industrial-scale food processing or green and sustainable chemical manufacturing. The progress in the random mutagenesis, screening, selection, and computational project augmented the versatility and the rapid development of enzymes. Therefore this chapter focuses on the emerging enzyme engineering trends and approaches to construct innovative biocatalysts with enhanced catalytic activity and highlights the food industry’s recent application. The challenges and opportunities in developing biocatalytic procedures are also explored.