Science of Micro Innovations

Research on edible microbes has been carried out over the last six decades but unfortunately, the pieces of evidence available in the literature to establish this fact of microbes as a food resource are small. Still, researchers who continued their research investigations in this field until now, reported that as the microbes contain rich proteins and other vital nutrients, there are no reasons that they can be considered as a significant food source for consumption. Sang Yup Lee, a bioengineer and senior vice president for research at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, has supported and agreed on this concept of edible microbes.  

He further says that microbes are promising cell factories in which various food ingredients are produced. However, the commercialization of microbial-based food compounds is still limited by the insufficient performances of microbial strains and processes. In recent years some other researchers have noted that growing microbes requires less land and water than conventional agriculture and therefore, they might prove to be a more sustainable source of nutrition, particularly as the human population grows. It has also been pointed out that all microbes are not safe to eat but those we eat through fermented food and beverages, such as lactic acid bacteria, bacillus, and some yeasts are safe and beneficial.

These bacteria however do not degrade plastics. In 2019 Department of Defense of the USA wanted to develop a research project to help the military people, convert food wrappers and water bottles into usable products such as fuel and day-to-day rations, and for this they needed plastic-eating microorganisms. As per the United Nations Environmental Programs (UNEP), the world produces 440 million tonnes of plastics annually, most of which are disposed of through landfills or in the ocean.  For proper disposal of plastic waste, many governments developed policies to reduce the production of plastics and guidelines for plastic degradation. While several researchers were working on plastic-eating bacteria, the Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) in the USA wanted to develop another innovative research program on using plastics to create human food. Stephen Techtmann, a microbiologist at Michigan Technological University, USA reported recently that the plastic-devouring microbes will themselves prove fit for human consumption, and accordingly his research team is working on this project. A misconception that he wants to feed plastics to humans is to be removed from the mind. Currently, his team is working on toxicity studies of such microbes in humans and shortly they may come out with positive results to support the above concept of plastic-devoured microbes as a source of food. It has been also reported that in Korea and Finland few researchers and some private companies are exploring whether microbes might one day help feed the world’s growing population. 

To find out about plastic-eating bacteria, Stephen Techtmann thought that the contaminated environment may be a good source. Still, he later found that the compost bacteria have the functional property of deconstructing plastics. Further, he noticed that the deconstructed plastic has similar molecular structure to some plant material compounds. From these findings, he tentatively inferred that the bacteria that would otherwise eat plants can perhaps draw their energy from the plastic. He explains further that once bacteria consume plastic, the microbes are dried into a powder that smells like nutritional yeast and has balanced organic constituents like fat, carbohydrates, and protein like in the bacteria-eating plants. However, even if plastic-eating microbes are safe to eat, ethical issues and public acceptance for consumption remain a major constraint. But in emergencies on remote military bases or during disaster relief or at places where no food is available, plastic-eating microbes can serve as food resources for short-term relief to help people to survive.

A D Diwan

Guest Author