NAME: FABIAN OSIR

REG NUMBER: PS32/00154/21

COURSE: BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
LABORATORY SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
SCHOOL: KISII MAIN CAMPUS
UNIT NAME: BIOTECHNOLOGY
APPLICATIONS
UNIT CODE: BIOL 300
PHONE NUMBER: 0795172798
EMAIL: FABIANOSIR321@GMAIL.COM

TOPIC : FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

Introduction

 Food biotechnology is the evolution of traditional agricultural techniques such as crossbreeding

and fermentation.
 Technically, food biotechnology employs the tools of modern genetics to enhance beneficial
traits of plants, animals and microorganisms for food production. It involves adding or extracting
select genes to achieve desired trait.
 Food biotechnology is a safe, more efficient way to improvecrops.
 Selecting specific genes to add or extract is a more precisemethod of plant breeding, offering
farmers more ways to improvecrops.
 Because of these and many other benefits, use of biotechnologyis becoming increasingly
popular. It is estimated that in 2003, 80%of the soybeans, 70% of the cotton and 38% of the
corn planted inthe United States used some form of biotechnology.
 In addition for the year 2002, an international researchorganization estimated biotechnology
crops were planted on 145million acres worldwide.

Evolution of food biotechnology

 Beginning in 2,500 B.C., Egyptians were breeding geese to make them bigger and better
tastingwhen cooked.
 Microorganisms have been used to enhance food production since before the turn of the 20th
century.
 Foundations for food biotechnology including pasteurization, modern crossbreeding and
thescience of genetics were all discovered in the 1800’s and early 1900’s.
 Food biotechnology as we know it today dates back to the 1970’s when researchers first began
toexplore improving food through genetic enhancements.
 In 1990 the first food products enhanced via biotechnology were introduced. These were
anenzyme used in cheese production approved in the United States and a yeast used in baking
approvedin the United Kingdom.
 In 1994 the first whole food produced using modern biotechnology entered the U.S.
marketplace.This was the FlavrSavr®tomato.
 An herbicide-tolerant variety of soybeans was introduced in 1997; this crop is currently the
mostcultivated biotechnology crop in the United States.
 In 1998, the Hawaiian papaya industry was revived from near devastation with a genetically-
enhanced virus resistant strain.
 April 2002, the genome of the first food crop—the rice plant—was released. With the mapping
ofthe world’s most widely used grain, scientists expect they can identify the genes responsible
for diseaseand drought resistance in the rice plant and help protect this staple for the world’s
growing population.
APPLICATIONS OF FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

1.From farm to fork

  Reduces the use of pesticides.
 Decreases soil erosion
 Helps protect the water
 Conserves land fossil fuels

2.Farmers

 Increases crop yield

 Reduces farmer's cost of production
 Decreases farmer's exposure to pesticides
 Improves farming efficiency
 Preventable plant diseases:Virus resistance is another type of genetic enhancementavailable
to farmers.Food biotechnology helps prevent debilitating plant diseases andinsect pests,
ensuring a healthy supply to meet consumers’ongoing demands.

3.Food quality and processing

 Many of our processed foods contain ingredients from biotechnology crops such as: soy
flour, soy protein, cornmeal, corn syrup, corn starch, chymosin (in cheese), and oils– like
corn oil and canola oil.
 It has offered us oils that are lower in saturated fat and highin oleic acid which means these
oils are more stable forfrying without further processing.
 Finally, research is underway to delay the ripening of fruitsand vegetables so they stay
fresher longer.

4.Health and nutrition

 The science of biotechnology is allowing us to produce morehealthful food products – with

direct benefit to the consumer. Asconsumer demand grows for these types of products, you
may see:
 Vegetable oils that do not require hydrogenation – making thema more healthful product;
 Vegetable oils with enhanced levels of nutrients, such as beta-carotene and Vitamin E.

5.Developing nations

 Resource-poor farmers in developing nations could usebiotechnology crops to achieve

greater yield with reduced cropproduction costs bringing economic benefits as well as
helping tofeed the rapidly growing population.
REFERENCES
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 Introduction to Food Biotechnology. Plant Biotechnology and Transgenic Plants
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(1998). Microbiology of Fermented Foods, 2-Volumes, Second Edition.
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 Nature Biotechnology 23(1), 147 – 149. Guide to Food Biotechnology (1996)