Fermenters

New ways to more foods

The National Food Institute has invested in new fermenters. They can convert side streams to new food ingredients by using these as growth media for growing bacteria. This is a sustainable utilization of resources and part of the solution to the problem with feeding the growing population.

Fermentation converts a side stream – such as lactose from whey – to butter aroma by feeding the bacteria with lactose.

The bacteria used may be genetically modified so that they produce a substance which they would not produce naturally. In order to make the bacterium convert e.g. lactose to butter aroma, the researchers have removed some genes from the bacterium. 

In other cases, the researchers can compare different bacteria which had their different genes ‘turned up’ or ‘turned down’. This allows the researchers to examine which bacterium would
be the right candidate for the ingredient someone is wanting to produce.

The researchers control the conditions in the fermenters
To compare different bacterial strains, the Institute has invested in several BIOSTAT® A-fermenters: Ten of them have a volume of one litre and two of them have a volume of five litres. Here the researchers can control the conditions in the fermenters such as oxygen, temperature, and pH.

The purpose of the work is to compare the bacterial growth and metabolism, under controlled circumstances, and thus to gain valid knowledge of the process and the result so that the new substances can be used in innovative industrial collaborations over time.