Food science is defined as the study of the physical, biological and chemical of food, which most of the studies related to food processing and food deterioration while food technology is the application of it involved in packaging, preservation and food safety (Institute of Fodd Technologies, 2019). The fields that closely related to the food technology are such as biotechnology, engineering, nutrition and quality and safety management. In this review, biotechnology will be discussed on its roles and applications towards food industry.
Biotechnology is the scientific techniques used to produce new and specific desired traits or characteristics in various organisms such as plants, animals or microorganisms through genetic study. In food production, food biotechnology has been widely used to create another alternative in improving food productivity, safety and quality. Food biotechnology has been widely used by people around the world because from the technology, they can develop new species or a hybrid product that exhibit better characteristics than the original food.
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In this review, it will be discussed regarding the animal and plant biotechnology in food industry. Animal biotechnology is where genes of the organisms are being modified to improve the characteristics to be used in various fields such as in pharmaceuticals, agricultural, industrial and food applications (About Bioscience, n.d). Plant biotechnology or crop biotechnology is the one that developing new varieties and traits in plants and crops using genetics and genomics, marker-assisted selection (MAS) and transgenic or genetic engineered crops. This allowed the researchers to select specific genes for improving the crops and products (National Institute of Food and Agriculture, n.d). Genomics is where genetic information is being used to improve livestock selection and breeding, determine optimum nutrition needed and producing high-quality products (International Food Information Council Foundation, n.d).
Animal biotechnology has been continuously used in order to get a genetically modifies animals that can synthesize therapeutic protein, improving the rate of growth and prevent disease or virus against the animals (About Bioscience, n.d). In animal biotechnology, it has been gone through many advanced progress such as in gene sequencing, gene expression and metabolic profiling. The examples of animal biotechnology are gene cloning and genetic engineering. In plant biotechnology, the importance of biotechnology in a crop is to provide a plants that are sustainable to any environmental situations, can produce a good fruits or vegetables that have the best traits and characteristics and increase the shelf life.
Cloning is one of the earliest and well-known technologies used in animal. Cloning helps in producing and increasing the number of good and high-quality livestock. The most suitable animal is being cloned to produce identical twins and further breed to get the other generations without changing any of the genetic materials of the animals itself. In 1996, the famous clone animal, which is a sheep named Dolly as shown in Figure 1 was the one that remarks the cloning technology now. However, Dolly was not the first clone animal where the first clone animal was in 1984 followed by two other sheep in 1995 (The Life of Dolly, n.d). The success in Dolly’s cloning was because of it had been cloned from an adult meanwhile the earlier cloning had been done using embryonic cells. It is considered to be the most successful cloning that had been done during that time. Nowadays, cattle, goats, horses, mules and rats also have undergone cloning.
Other from cloning, genetic engineering also one of the biotechnologies that have been widely used. Genetic engineering is considered to be the most recombinant DNA technology that involves in insertion of foreign genes into plasmids of bacteria (Rosenberg, 2017). It also capable in direct protein synthesis, which could help scientist and researchers to undergo wide researches where commonly used in plants and livestock. It can be established by using multiple techniques, where nowadays advanced technologies have been widely used to improve the genetic engineering process. Traditionally, the technique involve the insertion of genes at random sequence in the host’s genome, however by having advanced technologies, the genes can be inserted at specific locations.
In food industry, animal and plant biotechnology as mentioned beforehand is important because of some occurring issues. The continuous demand from consumers on high-quality raw materials used in their meals has been one of the issues. This is because, the best product could be from other countries, which is hard to be obtained and involving high cost for the purchasing procedures. Besides, to fulfill the requirements to give healthy, nutritious and longer shelf-life foods in the market, which make the animal biotechnology is important. This can be seen in the Food & Health Survey in 2018 conducted by International Food Information Council Foundation, it shows that 80% of people aware on the healthy foods (Figure 2). The biotechnology techniques allowed all of these requirements to be fulfilled.
The problems in the food industries can be resolved which in animal and plant biotechnology, they had been developed transgenic techniques by introducing foreign deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into host organism. The foreign DNA is the gene that holds the desired characteristics for the host organisms to exhibit new characteristics compared to the original organisms. This is also called as genetic engineering mentioned beforehand and the products will be called as genetic modified organisms (GMO). The procedures on how the genetic engineering being carried are varied and depends on the scientists and researchers themselves. However, the general steps in carrying out genetic engineering are shown in the flow chart below.
The technique started with identifying the target gene (Rosenberg, 2017) to be inserted to the host organism. The genetic screens will be carried out to determine the potential genes that suitable for the desired purpose. This genetic screening is being done by randomly mutated DNA with chemicals or radiation. Then, the DNA that display desired trait will be chosen. Besides genetic screening, it can be identified using forward and reverse genetics. Forward genetic involves phenotype being marked and then compared the inheritance of phenotype with known genetic markers. As for reverse genetic, the gene is mutated and then being observed on the development of phenotype.
Next, after targeting the gene, gene manipulation or modification of DNA (Rosenberg, 2017) is being carried out. The modification first started with gene extraction, where the DNA is separated from cellular components. Then the gene of interest is separated from the extracted DNA by using random digestion method or restriction enzymes. Then modification of gene is where the isolated gene needs to be combined with other genetic elements for it to work properly which usually by using recombinant DNA techniques such as restriction digests, ligations and molecular cloning,
Then, after modification, the gene or extra chromosomal DNA need to be stable to incorporate into the target organisms. There are many techniques on how to insert the DNA, which depends on the type of organisms targeted. The techniques frequently used are firstly transformation which is a direct alter on the genetic components by passing through the genet through cell membrane. Next, transfection is the process where being used when using animals as the host where the foreign DNA is inserted by using gene therapy. Then, transduction is when the foreign DNA is being introduced using viral vector to help in transfer the genes to another organism. Lastly, regeneration or commonly known as tissue culture also one of the most used techniques in gene insertion into an organisms.
Lastly, gene targeting where in this stage the gene is specifically targeted at specific sites within the organism’s genome. Nowadays, the scientists and researchers used genome editing which are an artificial engineered nucleases that create specific double stranded breaks at desired location, which then the new genetic can be integrated into the site. Most common engineered nucleases are meganucleases, ZFNs, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) (Rosenberg, 2017).
The roles of food biotechnology are very important in all food industry such as in food processing and food safety. The other applications on the technology in food processing are the production of enzymes. The used of enzymes have been applied in food processing such as in making bread and bakery products. The production of enzyme mainly comes from microorganisms. In example, the rapid-rise yeast and cheese that are available in the market is one of the products that being produced through biotechnology. Besides, enzymes such as protease also has been widely used as meat tenderizer and in most dairy products, chymosin has been used in cheese production because it can coagulate milk and in baking process, alpha-amylase has been used to give sweetness to the food products by converts the starch to maltose (Snehal & Dubey, 2019). Table 1 below shows the examples of some enzymes obtained from genetically modified microorganisms (Olempska-Beer, 2006).
The food biotechnology also helps in improving the raw materials production and enhances taste and flavours which mostly, scientists have been used food technology in fruits and vegetables to improve the taste and increase shelf life (Snehal & Dubey, 2019). Vegetables and fruits once they have ripened and matured, they are easily undergoing degradation process even in a day. This is where food biotechnology plays its role to ensure that these food products can have a longer shelf life. This is important because when involved with product shipping that could take months, it can benefit the producer and also consumer to ensure that the food products maintain their characteristics, taste and physical appearance upon arriving to consumer. This can be seen as shown in Figure 4 below, where the difference in the appearance of the tomatoes after several days being stored, with and without biotechnology is being applied.
In conclusion, the food biotechnology, which animal and plant biotechnology has been the wide contributor in fulfill the global demand on healthy, nutritional and best food products. The great advantages in food biotechnology also one of the reasons on why it is chosen as the alternative to solve the demands from consumers. Biotechnology can protect the environment from usage of harmful herbicides or pesticides on plants especially. Researchers have made some foods such as papayas and potatoes resisted to disease which makes the crop does not use any pesticides or chemical that is harmful to humans and the environment. This biotechnology technique also has made a greater crop yields and organism that have the best characteristics. In plant, tomatoes which had undergone some genetically modified to make them ripen slowly which can ensure the freshness of the products and in animal, by injecting the best gene that give good taste and texture for its meats or milk into another cow that had already exhibit good characteristics, will make the product become much better. The disadvantages is when there are some disagreements from people on the terms of use other genes into other organisms, which some of them say that it is disrespect behaviour towards the animals and plants. Besides, the genetic modified might lead to a worse condition on the organisms or crops because of unsuccessful gene insertion or unsuitable host and conditions. This will make the organisms or products become harmful to humans or consumers as well as to the environment.
In Islam, there is no clear guidelines according to genetic modified technology, however there is stated that for humans they are not allow to change our physical appearance, gender or anything unless for health purposes and with a valid reasons. Some scholars also have a debatable on its rules regarding these advanced technologies. Some also have supported that because of the good benefits and advantaged that the technologies give for humans, animals and the environment, it is acceptable as long as no haram ingredients are being used and comply with Islamic guidelines in all aspects.
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