First of all, do you know that there are 7 million hectares of land in Malaysia are utilized for major crops such as oil palm, rubber, paddy, pineapple, coconut, cocoa. I always said to myself, Malaysia is one of the best and blessed countries of the world. Agricultural biomass contribute up to 16% of total energy consumption. With the sufficient petroleum supply, there are only 25% of total biomass is fully utilized for energy consumption, the rest are just left as waste!!
Single Cell Protein (SCP) is a biological term referring microbial biomass products which were produced by fermentation. SCP production becomes a promising way to solve the problem of worldwide protein shortage. SCP is not pure protein, but refers to the whole cells of bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi, or algae. SCP also contains carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, mineral salts and vitamins.
The impressive way is that the method evolved as bioconversion processes which turned low value by-products (some even free of charge), wastes such as wheat bran, cellulose, soy meal, fruits peel into products with added nutritional and market value.
Let us check out some historical background of SCP.
1) In olden days, the filamentous alga Spirulina was harvested in the lake Chad of Africa was consumed as food.
2) During 1st world war Germans used Candida utilis in soups and sausages. It was extensively used during second world war. It was produced in industrial scale in 1967
So, what are the advantages of SCP?
1) First of all, it’s a promising industry, because the raw materials are free, at least can buy at a very cheap price, but the product to sell are relatively expensive. Not only that. It helps to reduce the environmental pollution and promote recycling.
2) It has high protein and low fat content. SCP organisms grow faster and produce large quantities of SCP from relatively small area of land and time. The scientist can alter the component of amino acids from SCP by genetic engineering.
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