Microbial technologies for sustainable food additives production

Microbial processing of foods for value addition, nutritional improvement, enhancement of organoleptic characteristics, and suchlike has been a common practice for several centuries. In modern times, however, there has been an increase in demand for natural food ingredients on a global scale based on consumer perception of less toxicity and health functionality of such. Accordingly, the market for food additives obtained from microbial cultures has received expansion in several countries around the world especially due to the absence of restrictions regarding their usage in food formulations by regulatory agencies. Microbially obtained additives are appraised as natural ingredients and have been studied and found functional for quality improvement of processed foods. This chapter offers a comprehensive discourse on the fundamentals of microbial processing of foods and the technical schematics for methodologies employed for obtainment of microbially processed food additives.