Enzyme technology usually refers to chemical reaction technology mainly through the catalytic conversion of enzymes in a limited reaction vessel. The application of enzyme technology has been distributed to all walks of life, such as manufacturing, chemical industry, agricultural industry, environmental resource utilization and exploitation, medicine and other fields.
1 Reaction mechanism of enzyme technology
The working mechanism of enzyme action is usually by reducing the activation energy of chemical reaction, activating the activity of the reaction substrate and making it an activated molecule. By increasing the percentage of activated molecules, the reaction threshold can be greatly reduced, and the reaction efficiency can be greatly increased and accelerated. Compared with inorganic catalysts, the catalysis of enzymes is more efficient and more active. Neither enzymes nor inorganic catalysts are consumed during the reaction and do not advance or delay chemical reaction equilibrium.
Enzymes have relatively high requirements on external environmental factors, and can survive at low temperature, but their activity is not too large, and almost most enzymes lose their activity at high temperature. Enzymes are also limited in the reaction because of their specificity, and have special requirements for the structure of the reaction substrate. It is difficult for the same enzyme to be applied to another reaction. Since enzymes are proteins in nature, they are safer and more environmentally friendly than inorganic catalysts, and are therefore more common and efficient than traditional processes in food processing.
Food processing technology refers to the process of processing various raw materials into finished or semi-finished food through technological methods. Each product has a specific process technique, in other words, each processing technique has different single or multiple engineering techniques, operation techniques, etc. The selection of materials and the selection of catalysts directly affect the quality of products, the quality and taste of food. Many processing plants will upgrade the process technology in the later stage, increase or reduce some process methods, and select higher quality enzymes is also an important improvement technology. Food technology takes into account the objective factors of seasonality and variety and regionality, as well as factors such as the taste, taste, and nutritional content of the product. Therefore, in order to maintain the activity of raw materials and products, the function of enzymes is more inseparable in the processing process, which not only needs enzymes to improve the reaction efficiency, but also needs enzymes to maintain biological activity.
2 Application of enzyme technology in the field of food processing
2.1 Application of lipase in food processing
Lipase is abundant in animal and vegetable fats. Plant lipase can simultaneously work with other enzymes to decompose and catalyze the decomposition of oil into sugars, in order to provide energy for the germination and growth of plant seeds. Animals contain more lipase in the pancreas and adipose tissue, which can improve the working efficiency of the digestive system and help absorption and metabolism. Lipases can be used as catalysts for hydrolysis and synthesis reactions of triacylglycerols. Due to the specificity of enzymes, lipases can only catalyze natural oils and fats in a targeted manner. Therefore, engineering processes are often modified to improve the working efficiency of lipases to increase the utilization rate of raw materials and reduce production costs.
For example, lipase catalyzes the chemical reaction of certain soybean oil, palm oil, vegetable oil and other oils to obtain commonly used margarine. After the modification of lipase, the stability and practicability of the molecule are greatly enhanced, and the activity of the enzyme can be detected by specific means to understand the progress of the reaction, so as to control in real time and improve the quality of food.
Reference data shows that the average annual output of global commercial oils and fats is about 100 million tons, of which about 79% is invested in direct consumption, 13% is invested in the chemical industry to produce surfactants, and about 8% is invested in feed. .
2.2 Food Processing of Fruit and Vegetable Enzymes
The core technology of beverage production lies in the stability and nutrition of fruit and vegetable juices. Additional diatomaceous earth is typically used to precipitate adsorbed species to reduce particle radii and remove stability-affecting impurities. Now the common enzymes in food processing technology often uses enzyme catalysis technology, such as cellulase and pectinase, to precipitate the turbidity of fruit and vegetable juice. Enzyme technology can change the process and reduce production costs. Effective nutrients such as VC content and anthocyanins in fruits and vegetables can also be catalyzed by enzymes without being destroyed. Proper selection of enzymes can also improve the color retention of fruit and vegetable juices and improve the original ecological production effect.
