Systems metabolic engineering of microorganisms for food and cosmetics production

The demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of foods and cosmetics is increasing owing to concerns about the rapid growth of the global population and climate change. Microorganisms are promising cell factories in which to produce various food and cosmetic ingredients. However, the commercialization of microbial-based food and cosmetic compounds is still limited by the insufficient performances of microbial strains and processes. Systems metabolic engineering can improve the performance of microorganisms. In this Review, we highlight food and cosmetic compounds that can be produced using microorganisms. We then discuss systems metabolic engineering, with its different phases that include production mode and host selection, metabolic pathway reconstruction, tolerance enhancement, metabolic flux and fermentation process optimization, downstream process integration and scale-up, which can be optimized to improve the development of high-performance microbial processes. Finally, we overview the current limitations and future directions of industrializing microbial processes for the production of food and cosmetic compounds. Microbial production of food and cosmetics is a promising technology with which to obtain sustainable and environmentally friendly compounds. This Review discusses the production of food and cosmetic compounds using metabolically engineered microorganisms and the systems metabolic engineering strategies that can be used to develop industrially competitive microbial strains and processes.