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How has biotechnology been used in bread, cheese, and alcoholic beverage production?

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A step-by-step diagram shows donor DNA and vector DNA cut with restriction enzymes to create overhangs, mixed and sealed with ligase to form recombinant DNA, which is introduced into bacterial cells. The recombinant DNA replicates as the cells divide, producing clones. — biotechnology Steps involved in the engineering of a recombinant DNA molecule.

While humans have utilized microorganisms for thousands of years to produce bread, cheese, and alcoholic beverages, these traditional practices are distinct from modern biotechnology, which typically refers to molecular and cellular technologies that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.1

Traditional Applications

For millennia, humans have harnessed biological processes to create these staples:

Bread: Selected strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are used to ferment sugars in dough. This process releases carbon dioxide, which causes the dough to rise, while the produced ethanol evaporates during baking.23
Alcoholic Beverages: In brewing and winemaking, S. cerevisiae ferments sugars from grains or fruits into ethanol and carbon dioxide. In sparkling wines and beer, some carbon dioxide is retained for effervescence.23
Cheese: Milk is inoculated with specific fermenting microorganisms and rennet. These microorganisms convert lactose into lactic acid, which, along with rennet, causes the milk protein casein to coagulate into curds.45

Modern Biotechnology

Modern biotechnology has refined these processes through applied genetics. For example, the brewing industry employs geneticists to improve yeast strains for more efficient alcohol production. Furthermore, biotechnology is used to discover and produce biological enzymes that act as catalysts to improve industrial food processing.61