Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2021
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E43
Höfundar / Authors: René Groben, Hörður Guðmundsson, Alexandra Klonowski & Viggó Þór Marteinsson
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Matís ohf.
Kynnir / Presenter: René Groben
The food industry has a strong interest in new food colors, blue ones being among the most sought-after. Currently, synthetic blue food colors are mainly used by the industry, with phycobiliproteins (PBPs) produced by the cyanobacterium Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) as the only natural alternative currently on the market. However, Spirulina PBPs are not heat stable and lose their blue colour under increased temperatures and low pH, making them unsuitable for many applications and processes in the food industry. The EIT Food funded ThermoBlue project aims to solve this problem by developing a novel blue food color from thermophilic microalgae. Strains of the cyanobacterium Chlorogloeopsis sp., isolated from geothermal streams in Iceland, are adapted to their hot environment and their proteins, including PBPs, can be expected to withstand conditions that Spirulina PBPs cannot, while retaining their bright blue color. The whole development process includes the optimization of growth conditions for algal biomass and PBP production, extraction and purification, and finally testing PBP stability and applicability both in laboratory experiments and in real food and beverage production processes. With very promising first results, ThermoBlue PBPs might become a new, natural alternative for blue food colorants.