Principle of Enzyme in Food Production

Principle of Enzyme in Food Production

Enzyme is a kind of special food additive, the main component is enzyme protein with various catalytic activity. Enzyme is a rapidly developing industry in food additives. As a food additive, enzyme technology has obvious advantages compared with traditional chemical methods, such as acid method and alkali method.

1. The enzyme is non-toxic, tasteless, odorless, will not affect food safety and edible value ;
2. The enzyme has high catalytic activity, low concentration of enzyme can also make the reaction fast ;
3. The temperature, pH and other conditions required for enzyme action are mild and will not affect food quality ;
4. Enzyme has strict specificity, which can avoid unnecessary chemical changes in raw materials with complex components.
5. The end of the enzyme reaction is easy to control if necessary through a simple heating method can make the enzyme inactivation, terminate the reaction.

     Therefore, enzyme engineering technology has been widely used in various fields of food, such as food manufacturing, quality improvement, and improvement of product added value.

1. Application of enzyme in food processing

The rennet was used to produce cheese. Amylase can be liquefied and saccharified to promote the growth of yeast, and then beer and alcohol can be produced. If palm oil and stearic acid were used for enzymatic esterification, the products similar to cocoa butter-like or cocoa butter substitute can be prepared. Sweeteners such as maltodextrin, maltose syrup, maltose and fructose can be produced by decomposing starch with different amylases, which can be used for the processing of candy, ice cream, beverage and other foods. Hesperetin-F-glucoside dihydrochalcone can be produced by the reaction of hesperidinase and hesperidin. It is a sweetener safe to human body, and its sweetness is 70 -100 times that of sucrose.

Enzyme preparation can also be used for isomaltooligosaccharides, trehalose, palatin, fructooligosaccharides, xylooligosaccharides, soybean oligosaccharides and other functional oligosaccharides. Enzyme preparations also have good applications in the production of shortening and artificial cream.

Artificial butter made from soybean oil by hydrogenation can produce trans acid, which has been proved to be harmful to human body. Trans fatty acids can be avoided by transesterification with enzyme. Now some enterprises begin to use this technology to produce artificial butter without trans fatty acids.

2. Application of enzyme preparations in food preservation

The principle of enzyme preservation is to use the catalysis of enzyme to prevent or eliminate the adverse effects of external factors on food, so as to maintain the original quality of food. A series of characteristics of enzyme preparations make their application in food preservation superior to other methods.

At present, glucose oxidase preservation technology is widely used. Glucose oxidase has a variety of effects on food. As the most important role in food preservation and packaging, deoxygenation can prolong the shelf life of food. Many food, especially raw food, during the preservation or processing, the presence of oxygen has a great impact on its preservation. Deoxygenation is a necessary means of food preservation. Many deoxygenation methods have poor effects. In terms of the characteristics of selecting antioxidants, using glucose oxidase for deoxygenation is an ideal method. Adding an appropriate amount of glucose oxidase during beer processing can remove dissolved oxygen and bottleneck oxygen in beer, prevent beer from oxidation and deterioration, and do not affect other substances in beer. Therefore, glucose oxidase has remarkable effects on preventing beer aging, maintaining beer flavor and extending shelf life.