Biotechnology could provide a more environmentally sustainable alternative to egg white protein production – ScienceDaily
A study by the University of Helsinki’s Future Sustainable Food Systems research group together with VTT shows that the ovalbumin produced by the fungus could alleviate the environmental impact associated with egg white powder. This is especially true when using low-carbon energy sources in production.
Egg white powder is a commonly used ingredient in the food industry due to its high quality protein. Annual consumption of egg proteins in 2020 was about 1.6 million tonnes and the market is expected to grow further in the coming years.
Growing demand raises questions about both sustainability and ethics. Parts of the egg white powder production chain, such as the rearing of chickens for egg production, cause high levels of greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to water scarcity, biodiversity loss and deforestation. In addition, intensive chicken farming has led to the outbreak of zoonotic diseases by acting as an important repository of human pathogens.
The search for sustainable alternatives to animal proteins has been of growing interest in the food industry. Cell culture, also called precision fermentation when used in the production of recombinant ingredients, provides a biotechnology-based solution to decouple animal protein production from animal production using a microbial production system to produce certain proteins.
“For example, more than half of the protein content of egg white powder is ovalbumin. VTT has succeeded in producing ovalbumin with the filamentous fungal Trichoderma reesei. The gene carrying egg albumin is as a functional product “, says Dr. Emilia Nordlund from VTT.
Cell culture products generally require more electricity than typical agricultural products, and therefore the type of energy used affects the level of environmental impact. However, the amount of agricultural inputs required for the production of microbial ovalbumin, such as glucose, is generally significantly lower per kilogram of protein powder.
“According to our study, this means that the ovalbumin produced by the fungus reduced the need for land use by almost 90 percent and greenhouse gases by 31 to 55 percent compared to the production of chicken-based counterpart. from the university.
In terms of the environmental impact of water use, the results were less convincing and showed a high dependence on the presumed location of the ovalbumin production site. Overall, the study shows that precision fermentation technology has the potential to increase the sustainability of protein production, which can be further enhanced by the use of low-carbon energy sources.
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