Title: The journey of filamentous fungi and yeasts as natural or heterologous hosts for the production of food colorants
Abstract:
Recent research has proved that fungal pigments can be produced in high titres in bioreactors under controlled culture conditions unlike plant based food colorants that are seasonal and often produced/extracted in low yields with variable pigment profile. In the past, fungal pigments have been used only as taxonomic markers barring the case of fungal riboflavin and the polyketide pigments produced by the fungus Monascus, produced mainly in the South East Asia. Monascus pigments were and are still legally not allowed in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) as food colorants mainly due to the risk of the co-production of the mycotoxin citrinin, though the citrinin production is dependent on the species, strain, media and culture conditions.
In the recent past, there has been successful industrial production of such chemical classes of fungal pigments as carotenoids, particularly β-carotene and lycopene, and polyketide azaphilones including Monascus pigments using the original hosts such as filamentous fungi Blakeslea trispora and Talaromyces spp. (formerly known as Penicillium spp.). More recently
plant and insect-based contemporary food colorants such as betalains and carminic acid have been successfully produced in recombinant yeast and fungal cell factories expanding the product portfolio of the natural food colorant industry and providing the healthier option over the eventually harmful synthetic food colorants.
The talk will focus on key developments in the scientific discipline of the production of fungal food colorants with examples of successful industrial work horses. The chemical classes covered will include carotenoids, polyketide azaphilones, betalains, and carminic acid as case studies. In addition, advancement in the technology used for the production of fungal pigments and the downstream processing of pigments will be highlighted.
