Chapter 16: Functional Food Production Utilizing Microbial Vitamins and Carotenoids

Demand for food has increased as a result of the recent rapid growth in global population. This phenomenon presents a significant challenge to food producers to supply healthy and nutritious food to meet the current demand of consumers for healthy and natural foods. Vitamins and carotenoids are a group of bioactive nutrients that are vital for maintaining healthy metabolism and body functions. Different vitamins and carotenoids have numerous applications in food, cosmetics, feed, medicine and other industries. The rise in demand for vitamins and antioxidants has sparked a lot of interest in advanced production methods. Chemical synthesis for the production of vitamins and carotenoids poses challenges to food safety and environmental and human health. From an environmental, human health, and financial perspective, vitamin and carotenoid manufacturing through microbial cell factories is a green and sustainable approach. In this chapter, we enumerate the vitamins and carotenoids that are manufactured using microbial cell factories and their impact on environmental sustainability.