Seung-Oh Seo¹ and Yong-Su Jin^2,*

¹Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Republic of Korea; 
²Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA;

^*Corresponding author 

A growing human population is a significant issue in food security owing to the limited land and resources available for agricultural food production. To solve these problems, sustainable food manufacturing processes and the development of alternative foods and ingredients are needed. Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology can help solve the food security issue and satisfy the demand for alternative food production. Bioproduction of food ingredients by microbial fermentation is a promising method to replace current manufacturing processes, such as extraction from natural materials and chemical synthesis, with more ecofriendly and sustainable operations. This review highlights successful examples of bioproduction for food additives by engineered microorganisms, with an emphasis on colorants and flavors that are extensively used in the food industry. Recent strain engineering developments and fermentation strategies for producing selected food colorants and flavors are introduced with discussions on the current status and future perspectives.

Keywords : microorganism, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, food colorants, flavors