(12g) "Invited Talk" Biotech in the Flavor Industry

In modern age, biotech has incredible values in the flavor industry. The market demand for natural flavoring has been skyrocketing since people pay more and more attention to what they eat. Fermentation as one of the a few technologies approved by FDA to make natural flavors has gained its spot light in meeting consumers’ craving for health and well-being. In addition, equipped with rapid development in metabolic engineering tools, a wide arrange of fine chemicals which was only available from specific plants before, now can also be achieved by enhanced fermentation with considerably lower costs, and much shorter production time. Yet, biotech also has inevitable limits to have broader applications in flavors. First, plant based flavor molecules often come with complex synthetic pathways, which are difficult to be balanced in microbes, not mention with decent productivity. To make things even more challenging, global food regulations on non-GMO and natural have become increasingly restricted. In this review, we’ll look into the current status of the exploitation of biotech in the flavor industry, also provide foresight on strategies to overcome technical hurdles while maintain its advantages in food labeling.