Microbes have long been a part of food production. Whether in the brewing of beer or the leavening of bread, yeast has been part of our food system for millennia. More recently, production of rennet (used to coagulate milk in cheesemaking) has been achieved by inserting the chymosin gene into yeast, so we no longer need to harvest this protein from the stomach lining of young calves.
This session aims to introduce you to fermentation for alternative protein applications and highlight the immense potential for microbes in this field. We cover traditional fermentation, biomass fermentation and precision fermentation and the relative roles that they can each play in replacing proteins from animals.
Core Material [~2hrs 15 mins]:
Fermentation in the alternative protein field slides [Lecture, 40mins]
