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.

Lipase (EC 3.1.1.3), the full name of triacylglycerol hydrolase, is a class of biological enzymes that can hydrolyze long-chain fatty acid glycerides into fatty acids and monoglycerides, diglycerides or glycerol. It can be derived from animals, plants and microorganisms, and can catalyze reaction types such as hydrolysis, esterification, and transesterification. The reaction has the advantages of mild conditions, low energy consumption, low raw material requirements, and high quality of finished products. It can be used in food, medicine, biodiesel and other fields and has huge application potential. Although lipases are widely used in industry, most of them have short lifespan, and free enzymes are not dissolved in the organic phase, and are easy to agglomerate during the reaction process, which greatly reduces the availability of enzymes and makes enzyme recovery rates low. Using immobilization technology to immobilize the enzyme on an inert carrier can improve the solubility of the enzyme in the organic phase, and increase the utilization rate and recovery rate. This is conducive to continuous and low-cost production, so the industrialization of lipase catalytic technology largely depends on enzyme immobilization.

Immobilized enzyme technology is a type of technology that uses solid materials to confine or confine the enzyme to a certain area, but still has catalytic activity, and can be recycled and reused. Using immobilization technology to immobilize lipase on an inert carrier can improve its diffusion effect and thermal stability in the organic phase, and at the same time facilitate the recovery, continuous and low-cost production of the enzyme. So far, the methods used to immobilize enzymes mainly include embedding method, adsorption method, covalent binding method and cross-linking method. In terms of carriers, carriers with different forms and functions are used to immobilize enzymes, including natural polymer materials, inorganic materials, synthetic polymer materials, and new carrier materials with specific functions.

Application of immobilized lipase in food industry

Synthesis of sugar esters
Sugar esters are a class of nonionic biosurfactants that take sugar groups as hydrophilic groups and fatty acids as hydrophobic groups, and have both hydrophilicity and lipophilicity. Sugar ester food additives have the advantages of excellent surface activity, biodegradability, odorless, and non-irritating. Certain sugar esters also have antibacterial and antiviral activities, and are now widely used in the food industry as food emulsifiers, texture modifiers, and fresh-keeping fungicides.

Grease modification
Fat modification is an important part of food processing. Changing the physical and chemical properties of oils and developing oils with higher nutritional value has great value and market potential. Lipase has position specificity and fatty acid specificity, and can be used as a biocatalyst for lipid modification by catalyzing transesterification, transesterification, hydrolysis and other reactions. Therefore, it is widely used in the oil industry.

Synthesis of aromatic ester compounds, aromatic compound esters
The compound is composed of short-chain fatty acids and alcohol compounds. It is the main component of flavor and fragrance. It has a wide range of applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries, such as butyl butyrate, isoamyl acetate and other aromatic lipid compounds. It is commonly used in the food industry to regulate food flavor.

Although the immobilized enzyme technology can improve the properties of lipase to a certain extent, it cannot transform the lipase in nature. At the molecular level, rational or irrational design is an important method to improve the properties of lipases according to the degree of understanding of the relationship between enzyme structure and function. Rational design and semi-rational design are the main directions for lipase modification at the molecular level in the future. In summary, improving the performance of lipase through these design ideas and expanding its application in the food field will have great research prospects.

Washing powder has a history of more than 100 years. German Henkel invented washing powder for the first time in 1907 using borate and silicate as the main raw materials. Washing powder is an alkaline synthetic detergent. The main component of washing powder is anionic surfactant: sodium alkylbenzene sulfonate, a small amount of non-ionic surfactant, plus some additives, phosphate, silicate, Fluorescent agents, enzymes, etc. Now most of the 4A fluorspar is used instead of phosphate.

When our clothes are stained with oil, sweat or blood, it is difficult to clean them with ordinary washing powder. To solve this problem, scientists have developed a more effective washing powder.

The ingredients of common washing powders can be briefly summarized as: surfactants, buffers, builders, synergists and auxiliary materials. Surfactants have hydrophilic and lipophilic groups, which can be aligned on the surface of the solution and weaken the adhesion between stains and clothes. Buffer is one of the most important raw materials of washing powder. The decontamination ability of washing powder will be improved in an alkaline environment, and the buffer can provide a proper alkaline washing environment. Commonly used buffers are: carbonate, silicate, etc. Washing powder generally contains a variety of builders, whose role is to meet different functional requirements, such as improving the decontamination ability and developing the anti-redeposition performance of the washing powder, which can enhance the comprehensive performance of the washing powder.

Ordinary washing powder has limited decontamination ability. For this reason, scientists have developed washing powder with biological enzymes. Enzyme washing powder is not only capable of decontamination, but also more environmentally friendly than ordinary washing powder.

Enzyme-added washing powder refers to washing powder containing enzyme preparations. It is a kinds of enzymes for household use. Currently, there are four types of enzyme preparations commonly used: protease, lipase, amylase and cellulase. Among them, alkaline protease and alkaline lipase are the most widely used and the best decontamination effect. Protease can hydrolyze macromolecular proteins in blood stains, milk stains and other stains into soluble amino acids or small molecular peptides, making them easy to fall off clothes. Lipase can hydrolyze macromolecular fat in oil stains into small molecular substances; amylase can hydrolyze macromolecular starch into small molecular substances; cellulase can hydrolyze cellulose into small molecular substances.

Enzyme-added detergent has stronger decontamination ability than ordinary detergent due to the presence of enzymes, but enzymes have higher environmental requirements, and temperature, pH and surfactants will all affect the decontamination effect of enzyme-added detergent. In order to make enzymes have better activity in washing powder, scientists have produced enzymes that can withstand acid, alkali and higher temperatures through genetic engineering, and use special chemicals to wrap the enzyme layer by layer and mix it with washing powder. The other components of the isolation layer are isolated, and this isolation layer will quickly dissolve after encountering water, and the enzymes wrapped in it can quickly play a catalytic role.

Diabetes is one of the most life-threatening diseases around the world. It not only puts your blood sugar levels in constant danger but also opens the door to many other health complications. You can get diabetes at any point of time in life, there’s no age restriction when it comes to it. But imagine being asked to deal with diabetes and pregnancy at the same time. Yes, a mother can get diabetes while she’s pregnant. The condition is known as gestational diabetes in which your blood sugar levels become high during pregnancy. Here the types are similar to that of normal diabetes, A1 and A2. While A1 gestational diabetes can be managed through diet and exercise, A2 gestational diabetes is much severe and might need insulin dosage. Gestational diabetes is known to last until the time of pregnancy but there’s also a risk that your new-born might get diabetes. Gestational diabetes symptoms are similar to signs and symptoms of diabetes, we’ve put together the most common ones below.

Frequent urination
Frequent thirst
Frequent hunger
Gestational diabetes causes

Insulin is a hormone that breaks down sugar into glucose and then transports them to the respective cells. Your pancreas is the one responsible to produce this insulin. During pregnancy, constant hormonal changes force the glucose build-up in the bloodstream. If this occurs in a normal case, pancreas ensures an adequate amount of insulin is released to deal with the problem. But in pregnancy it fails to do so, resulting in gestational diabetes.

So how do you identify you might have gestational diabetes? We’ve put down a few tests that your doctor might suggest to determine gestational diabetes. Mostly, gestational diabetes is present in the latter weeks of pregnancy. Your doctor might suggest when to do a test/check-up depending on your symptoms, usually, it’s between weeks 24 and 28. A normal diabetes test is not recommended during pregnancy therefore, a glucose screening test is the most favorable option to determine gestational diabetes. During the test, you’re asked to have a sweet drink to raise your blood sugar levels. Then, a normal blood test is done after an hour or so to see how your body manages the excess sugar. If your sugar levels are higher than 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), an oral glucose tolerance test is suggested. The tolerance test help the doctors to check your blood sugar levels during meal intervals. If the results are the same as the earlier test, there’s a high chance you may have gestational diabetes.

Gestational diabetes management

If you suspect any diabetic symptoms during pregnancy, consult your doctor or gynaecologist as soon as possible to ensure you and the baby are healthy before and after the delivery. Keeping a track of symptoms is of utmost importance, any slight changes should be reported immediately to the doctor. Your doctor might also suggest insulin dosage if the symptoms are much severe. Keep your blood sugar levels in check as any slight fluctuation might lead to other health complications for you and the child. The risk factors for gestational diabetes are as follows:

Blood sugar before a meal should be less than 95 mg/dL
Blood sugar an hour after a meal should be less than 140 mg/dL
Blood sugar two hours after a meal should be less than 120 mg/dL
Diabetes and pregnancy are very common but it’s best to consult a doctor to work out a plan as soon as possible for all the necessary guidance.