Research and Production of Biosurfactants for the Food Industry

Biosurfactants comprise a wide group of surface active compounds that are produced by microorganisms. Based on their unique features, these compounds find applications in many industrial fields including the food tech industry. These features and their usefulness for particular food applications will be discussed. Biosurfactants can be used as emulsifiers, texturizers, wetting and cleaning agents, antimicrobials, and anti-adhesives. Moreover, these compounds can be used to prepare microemulsion systems or to aid the production of nanoparticles. Such systems may be designed to encapsulate food odors, colorants, functional ingredients, and micronutrients, which could lead to the development of innovative food products or new functional characteristics of existing ones. Although biosurfactants are very promising, still few examples of their industrial application can be highlighted, mainly due to the scalability of the production processes and to the regulation. These issues, as well as the food tech industry opportunities regarding potential applications of the biosurfactants, will be presented in this chapter.