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How Can Microbiology Help Improve Global Food Security?

Article · June 2015

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Asia-Pacific Journal of Food Safety and Security
OPEN ACCESS
ISSN 2422-9555
(http://apjfss.wix.com/apjfss)

Theme: Global Food Security

Opinion

How Can Microbiology Help Improve Global Food Security?

Malik A. Hussain, Fiona Christial and Yu Sheng
Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences, Lincoln University,
New Zealand
Corresponding author's email address:
Malik.hussain@lincoln.ac.nz

Received: March 25, 2015/ Accepted: May 15, 2015 / Published online: June 1, 2015

To cite this article:

Hussain MA, Christial F and Sheng Y. (2015) How can microbiology help to improve global food security? Asia-Pacific
Journal of Food Safety and Security, 1(1):20-26.

Abstract
Food security is an immensely complex issue and is affected by multiple factors. Several opinions are
are discussed here to address this global challenge. Microbiology has great potential to offer solutions
tions through reducing food spoilage and outbreaks of food borne illnesses, increasing food production
tion and creating novel foods. This opinion article briefly explains the different options where micro-
biology can contribute to improving future global food security.

Keywords: food security, microbiology, foodborne pathogens, fermentation, bio-control

1. Introduction
Food security can simply be defined as the ensured supply of enough food for everyone on our planet.
A much broader definition of food security has been proposed by the Food and Agricultural Organi-
zation (FAO). According to the FAO, ‘Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physi-
cal and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life.’ The global population is increasing exponentially; FAO
has issued a sobering forecast about world food production. By 2050, the global human population is
estimated to reach 9.1 billion and a 70% increase in current food production is required to meet that
food demand. However, this requires food production in the developing world to be doubled over the
next three decades (Olimar 2011). In reality, even now, feeding this continuing population growth
has become a huge food security challenge.

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Food security demands not only the production of sufficient food but also safe food for all. The term
food security sounds simple; however, it is multi-dimensional. Food security is based on three main
pillars: food availability, food access and food utilization. These pillars are affected by factors such
as climate change, dependence on fossil fuels, loss of biodiversity and the use of food crops for bio-
fuels (Irene et al. 2012). Understanding and minimizing the risks inherent to these factors would
definitely assist in attaining food security.

Along with a continuously growing population, the world’s arable land base is shrinking, thereby
making global food security a huge challenge. There are two significant ways to improve food secu-
rity: 1) increase food availability and food access through improved farming systems, aggresive en-
trepreneurship and strengthened marketing systems; or 2) improve food utilization through better
food distribution, food processing, preservation and storage (Tomlinson, 2013). Microbiology could
make a highly valuable contribution to achieving these goals.

Microorganisms and their activities are involved in every step of the food supply chain. Understand-
ing and manipulating microbial activities will lead to the development of novel strategies that may
contribute to improving food security through higher yields of food commodities and reductions in
spoilage. In this article, several ways in which microbiology can help to ensure global food security
will be discussed.

2. Microbiology and food security

Microbiological activities and processes have important roles in nearly all stages of food production.
Microbiology, therefore, has the ability to make the improvements in food production that are re-
quired to feed the growing world population. Microbiological research has been, and continues to be,
central to meeting the global challenges of the food supply. The future role of microbiology in rela-
tion to food security could be in improving current food safety practices in reducing the unacceptable
levels of food borne illnesses and food losses due to microbial spoilage, increasing food production
through environmentally friendly technology and in developing new foods, such as single cell pro-
teins. Table 1 highlights several ways that microbiological research has delivered, or has the potential
to deliver, major advances in food production, utilization and safety to improve the global food secu-
rity situation.

2.1 Reducing food spoilage and food borne outbreaks

Food preservation has been an essential activity throughout history and is intended to keep microor-
ganisms out of foods, remove microorganisms from contaminated foods and hinder the growth and
activity of microorganisms already in foods. Virtually any type of food can be preserved, and a wide
range of food preservation techniques are available. The choice of method depends on the food type
and the shelf life extension required. Methods for preserving foods include: drying, canning, freez-
ing, pickling, fermentation, using chemicals, radiation, filtration and so on. Among these methods,
fermentation requires very little sophisticated equipment either to carry out the fermentation or for
the subsequent storage of the fermented product. It is a technique that has been employed for genera-
tions to preserve food for consumption over long periods of time without refrigeration (Quave et
al.2014). There are examples around the world that demonstrate the role of fermented foods in pre-
serving perishable food items to enhance food security. In Korea, kimchi is a traditional dish of salt-
ed vegetables containing a high concentration of salt and lactic acid to prolong shelf life (Young
2013). In Thailand, fermented fish products are well known among people for their low fat content
and high digestibility (Sangjindavong et al. 2000). In Turkey, the lactic acid-fermented beverage,

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shalgam, is made using the process of autochthonous fermentation of black carrots and is rich in an-
tioxidants, such as carotene and anthocyanin (Tangu¨ ler and Erten 2013). In Albania, a group of
people belonging to the Gorani community ferment different plants for use as foods, as well as tradi-
tional medicine, thus, ensuring food security within their community (Quave et al. 2014).

Table 1. Ways microbiology can help to improve global food security

Application Specific role Examples
Reducing food spoilage Food preservation Fermentation
and foodborne outbreaks Food safety management system
Control of food-
borne pathogens

Vaccination
Prebiotics
Probiotics
Zoonotic diseases Competitive exclusion
and control Antibiotics
Antimicrobials
Risk management at farms

Increasing food Bacteria: Bacillus thuringiensis (Baloyi et al. 2012);

Bio-control agents Pseudomonas florescence (Eastwell et al. 2006)
production
Fungi: Trichoderma strains; Ulocladium atrum; Micro-
sphaeropsis ochracea (Fravel 2005).
Soil microbiota Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria; bacterial endo-
phytes
Bio-fertilizer Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, Strepto-
coccus lactis (Hellal et al. 2014)
Bacillus subtilis and Coniotyrium minitans. Bacillus
Bio-pesticides thuringiensis and the Cydia pomella granulosia virus
(Fravel 2005)
Pseudomonas fluorescens (Malik 2012)
Alternative sources of Single-cell microbes
Fusarium venenatum (Wiebe 2004)
energy/nutrients Microbes as food
Methylomonas methylotropha (Svetlana 1978)
Microalgae (Raja 2008)
Bio-fuels

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 70% of the 1.5 billion episodes of diar-
rhea occurring globally each year have been caused by biologically contaminated food. Some risks,
such as mycotoxins and food borne parasites, are more common in developing countries than in de-
veloped countries (Grace 2015). A number of pathogens (Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli, Cam-
pylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp.) are potential threats to the food industry and the food supply. In
an ideal world, reduction of food spoilage and food borne pathogens to provide safer foods with a
longer shelf life is an important goal of food microbiologists. The recognition of the limitations of
traditional approaches to food safety assurance has accentuated the need for a cost-effective food

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safety assurance method. The HACCP protocol is a scientific, rational and systematic approach to the
identification, assessment and control of hazards during the production, processing, manufacturing,
preparation and use of food to ensure that food is safe when consumed (Viulet, 2006). The availabil-
ity of safe food for consumers is an important element of food security.

Climate change is one of the important factors that affect food security and causes many wild ani-
mals to migrate to new habitats where they will be exposed to previously unknown microbial infec-
tions (Paulsen et al. 2011). These newly emerged infectious animal diseases could be transmissible to
humans, which may result in a high rate of mortality and economic losses which, in turn, would af-
fect food security. The spread of zoonotic diseases has also been attributed to the growth in trade,
travel, transport, tourism, and the rapid and widespread movement of livestock and meat. The latter
has allowed diseases to spread widely, with a devastating impact on livestock trade and production,
and food security (Brian, 2012). Microbiology helps to mitigate this threat through vaccines, prebi-
otics, probiotics, competitive exclusion, antibiotics, antimicrobials and risk management to reduce
the incidence of food borne pathogens that enter abattoirs. The development of vaccines seems to be
the only solution for the control of brucellosis or tuberculosis if the principles of good husbandry
practices cannot stop these diseases (Kaferstein, 2003). Many vaccines for livestock have been de-
veloped and used widely to put extra food on the table (Callaway, 2004).

2.2. Increasing the food production

Bio-control can be defined as almost any process, occurring naturally or artificially, which affects the
relationship between organisms in such a way that the natural biological balance is restored. It relies
on predation, parasitism or other natural mechanisms for controlling pests, weeds, plant disease, etc,
but, typically, active human management is still required. The control of plant or animal diseases by
bio-control methods can offer even greater benefits to food security than can other methods. Bacteria,
fungi and viruses can be used as bio-control agents. The most popular bacterium that is used as a
bio-control agent is Bacillus thuringiensis against certain moths, butterflies and beetles that affect
fruit trees and other plants. Fungi like Trichoderma strains can be used for the control of strawberry
anthracnose and Ulocladium atrum reduced grey mould on strawberries at harvest, Microsphaeropsis
ochracea has been evaluated in the field for the control of apple scab in apple trees (Fravel 2005).
Eastwell et al. (2006) found that Pseudomonas florescence used as a bio-control agent significantly
reduced crown gall in grape vines caused by Rhizobium vitis. A study carried out by Baloyi et al.
(2011) found that the use of a mixed culture of Bacillus thuringiensis and Clonostachys rosea effec-
tively reduced parasitic nematodes in sheep.

Understanding the natural microbiota in the soil and maintaining them will make the land more pro-
ductive and sustainable. There are many different types of microorganisms in the soil that live in
symbiotic or non-symbiotic associations with host plants. Soil microorganisms are an integral part of
the soil ecosystem, and they can perform different and important functions (e.g. recycling soil nutri-
ents to enhance soil nutrient availability and uptake by plants to improve soil structure and control
the adverse effect of pathogens on plant growth [Haas et al. 2005]).

The use of bio-fertilizers is not a novel concept, and the term refers to preparations containing live
microorganisms that help to enhance soil fertility and plant growth through nitrogen fixation, solu-
bilization of phosphorus and mobilization of other nutrients in the soil. The concept of bio-fertilizer
came into existence through the discovery that many organisms were capable of decomposing or-
ganic matter and stabilizing the C:N ratio of the soil (Vaishampayan et al., 2001).

Bio-fertilizers are a renewable nutrient source that sustains soil health, supplements chemical ferti-
lizers, and can increase yields by 10-40% (Kuhad, 2012). In this way, soil microbiota and

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bio-fertilizers could play a role in increasing food production in a sustainable manner.

Pests, plant diseases and weeds are major constraints to crop growth. Plant pathogens are becoming
more and more difficult to control due to the development of pesticide resistance. It is very important
to control such emerging threats. Bio-pesticides can be defined as sustainable pest control agents that
are produced biologically and used to control plant pests, disease and weeds and which maintain en-
vironmental equilibrium and improve crop quality, productivity and profitability. A major advantage
of bio-pesticides is that they are less toxic than are conventional pesticides.

Bio-pesticides are a diverse group of compounds, with many containing pheromones (chemicals
emitted by plants, animals or other organisms) and products containing microbes and plant extracts,
which are highly refined and contain only one active substance. Some examples of bio-pesticides are
fungicides such as Bacillus subtilis and Coniotyrium minitans. Bacillus thuringiensis and the Cydia
pomella granulosia virus are used as insecticides (Fravel 2005). Pseudomonas fluorescens can be
used as a fungicide and flourishes in the rhizosphere where it protects roots of host plants against
pathogenic fungi by synthesizing diverse extracellular products, such as antibiotics, exoproteases and
hydrogen cyanide (Malik 2012).

2.3. Alternative sources of energy/nutrients

Considering the huge increase in global food demand each year, traditional agricultural methods will
not be able to achieve the proportional increase needed in annual food output. The use of microbes or
their products as food can either resolve the food shortage problem to some extent or make global
food more secure. The production of microbial cell mass is not affected by any of the same factors
that are risks to food security. Single cell proteins (SCP) are derivatives of microorganisms (fungi,
algae or bacteria) and contain high concentrations of biological molecules like lipids, carbohydrates,
vitamins, nucleotides, inositol and glutamic acid (Azam et al. 2014). Microorganisms are excellent
sources of SCP due to their rapid growth rates, the ability synthesize them using inexpensive sub-
strates as carbon sources, and their high efficiency in converting carbon sources to protein (Glazer
and Nikaido 2007). Some SCP can be obtained from groups of algae, like Chlorella and Scenedes-
mus. A very wide group of blue-green algae (Spirulina) has also been used for a number of years
(Richmond 2004), and yeasts ( Saccharomyces, Torulopsis and Candida) have shown great promise
as SCP as well (Azam et al. 2014). Fusarium venenatum is used to produce a commercial mycopro-
tein which is sold under the trade name Quorn in several countries, including the UK, USA, Bel-
gium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland (Wiebe 2004).

Bio-fuels provide viable alternatives for reducing pollution and carbon emissions and saving the di-
minishing petroleum resources (Zhang et al. 2012). Bio-ethanol, produced from starch and cellulose,
and bio-diesel from palm and oil seeds, are already in use. Unfortunately, the current use of food re-
sources (maize crops) to make bio-fuels can pose an even greater threat to food security. However,
microbiology could help to find alternative resources (algae) to produce bio-fuels. Microalgae can be
a source of bio-fuels because they grow on non-potable water and in waste streams. Algal diversity is
immense, with an estimated 300,000 species, and some species, like Chlamydomonas reinhardii,
Dunaliella salina, Botryococcus braunii, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Thalassiasira pseudonana,
Nannochloropsis and Isochrysis, can secrete high quantities of lipids (up to 60% of dry cell weight).
Currently, the use of microalgae as a bio-fuel source is not yet a commercial reality due to low
productivity and the high cost of lipid extraction using existing technology.

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3. Conclusions
In order to increase food production by 50% over the next 35 years, and from shrinking land resources,
huge investment of capital, time and effort is needed to identify novel and emerging technologies.
Experts are assessing all possible options, including the ability of agricultural production to meet
global food demands. Technological advances in microbiology are demonstrating great potential in
improved utilization, production and supply of food. Industrial microbiology through genetic engi-
neering and its associated disciplines can bring more revolution in agriculture, animal husbandry and
food industry and related fields which can help to ensuring the global food security.

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© 2015 by the authors; licensee 2050Science Publishers, Christchurch, New Zealand. This is an open access
article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribu-
tion and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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