Single Cell Proteins: A novelty in Food Technology

The increasing rate of population growth and therefore the demand for food production especially in third world countries, have forced food technologists to think about some new supplies with high quality. Single cell protein (SCP) production is one of the novel improving technologies to solve this problem. Single cell proteins are microorganism’s dried cells. Various bacteria, yeast, algae and fungi are used as the sources for SCP production. These microorganisms are able to consume industrial and agricultural waste and feed stocks to produce the natural protein. Single cell proteins include lipid, proteins and vitamins. The advantages of replacing SCPs by conventional sources are the high nutritive content as a valuable supplement of proteins and low digestibility. They also have a wide range of applications in food stuffs and animal feed. In addition, the SCP production does not depend on land and agriculture. The production process, various substrates, progress of single cell proteins and their application are described in this article.

Keywords:

Single cell protein , Production , Applications , Sources