Single

Cell
Protei
n

Presented By:
Shraddha Bhatt
PhD (Agri. Micro)
AAU, Anand.

What is Protein ???

Any of a group of complex organic macromolecules
that contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,
and usually sulphur and are composed of one or
more chains of amino acids.
Proteins are fundamental components of all living
cells and include many substances, such as
enzymes, hormones, and antibodies, that are
necessary for the proper functioning of an
organism.
They are essential in the diet of animals for the
growth and repair of tissue and can be obtained
from foods such as meat, fish, eggs, milk, and
legumes.

Protein requirement:
In inactive lifestyle, the recommended dietary
allowance (RDA) for a sedentary individual is
about 0.8 grams per kilogram of body .
So, if weight of body is 90 kg then protein
requirement
90 x 0.8 = 72g per day protein is required.
If lifestyle is active or hard working then protein
required is 1.4g/kg to 1.8 g/kg of body weight
daily.

aminoacids for the

human adult Data retrieved from FAO
(http://www.fao.org)
Essentials
amino acids

FAO
recommenda Minimum
tion
Phenylalanine
2.2
1.1
Methionine
2.2
1.1
Leucine
2.2
1.1
Valine
1.6
0.8
Lysine
1.6
0.8
Isoleucine
1.4
0.7
Threonine
1.0
0.5
Tryptophan
0.5
0.25
Total
12.7
6.35

Introduction
The increasing world deficiency of protein is becoming a
main problem of humankind. Since the early fifties,
intense efforts have been made to explore new, alternate
and unconventional protein. For this reason, in 1996, new
sources mainly yeast, fungi, bacteria and algae named
Single Cell Protein (SCP) as coined to describe the protein
production from biomass, originating from different
microbial sources. Microbial biomass has been considered
an alternative to conventional sources of food or feed.
Large-scale processes for SCP production show
interesting features, including:
The wide variety of methodologies, raw materials and
microorganisms that can be used for this purpose
High efficiency in substrate conversion
High productivity, derived from the fast growth rate of
microorganisms
Independence of seasonal factors (Roth, 1980;Parajoet
al., 1995)

History
A survey of the history of the use of
microorganisms for human consumption indicates
three major trends:
(a)microbes as a source of enzymes in the food
industry

(baking, brewing, distilling, wine

making, cheese production) has at present a

new aspect-the use of immobilized enzymes of
microbial origin,
(b) microbes as producers of nutritive substances
(amino acids,

Since 2500 B.C. yeasts have been used in bread

and beverage production. In 1781 processes for
preparing highly concentrated forms of yeast were
established.

"Food from oil"

In the 1960s, researchers atBritish
Petroleumdeveloped what they called "proteinsfrom-oil process": a technology for producing
single cell protein by yeast fed by waxy n-paraffins,
a product produced by oil refineries.
Initial research work was done byAlfred
Champagnatat BP's Lavera Oil Refinery in France;
a small pilot plant there started operations in
March in 1963, and the same construction of the
second pilot plant, atGrangemouth Oil Refineryin
Britain, was authorized.

Advantages of SCP over conventional

protein sources are:

It has high protein and low fat content.

It is good source of vitamins particularly B-complex.
e.g.
Yeasts
It can be produced through-out the year.
Waste materials are used as substrate for the
production of these
proteins. It reduces the environmental pollution and
helps in recycling
of materials.
SCP organisms grow faster and produce large quantities
of SCP from
relatively small area of land and time.
These have proteins with required amino acids that can
be easily
selected by genetic engineering.

Factors that impairs the usefulness of Unicellular biomass

All single-celled microorganisms of interest from

the industrial point of view have a nondigestible
envelope, which makes protein assimilation
difficult.
The content of nucleic acids in the unicellular
biomass is higher than the permissible level and
may cause disorders of purine metabolism in the
human body.
The
biomasses
of
some
unicellular
microorganisms have an unpleasant color
(algae), taste, and smell, which make them
unsuitable even for animal consumption.
Food grade production of SCP is more expensive
than
other
sources of proteins, as it depends on the raw
Kharatyan

SCP Manufacturing Protocol

1) Microbial screening: with microbial screening, in which
suitable production strains are obtained from samples of
soil, water, air or from swabs of inorganic or biological
materials and are subsequently optimized by selection,
mutation, or other genetic methods.
2) Suitable raw material
3) Process engineering:Then the technical conditions of
cultivation for the optimized strains are done and all
metabolic pathways and cell structures will be determined
4) Apparatus technology: adapt the technical performance of
the process in order to make the production ready for use
on the large technical scale.
5) Economic factors : Energy , Cost
6) Safety demands & Environmental protection ( to the

Possible Substrates for

SCP
They can be subdivided into three categories: high energy
sources (natural gas,
n-alkanes, gas-oil, methanol, ethanol, acetic acid); different
wastes (molasses, sulfite waste liquor, milk, whey, fruit
wastes);
and renewable
plant
(sugar,
starch,
The interest
in methanol
andresources
ethanol as
a raw
material for
cellulose).
SCP is based on;
1) complete water solubility of these alcohols and
2) the possibility of washing cells completely free of residual
methanol or ethanol;
3) the high purity of the substrate (99.5%);
4) the relative cheapness of the substrate;
5)
the restricted utilization of the substrates by
microorganisms,
thus
reducing
the
probability
of
contamination;
6) easy and simple storage and maintenance; and
7) lower requirements for oxygen during fermentation and

Average composition of the main groups of

micro-organisms (% dry weight)
TABLE
:1

Protein
Fat
Ash
Nucleic
Acids

Fungi

Algae Yeasts Bacter

ia

30-45
2-8
9-14
7-10

40-60
7-20
8-10
3-8

45-55
2-6
5-9.5
6-12

50-65
1.5-3.0
3-7
8-12
Miller et al.,

Parameters to be considered during

selection of microorganisms as protein
source:
Safety
Usefulness
Ease of processing
Rate of growth
Cultivation
conditions

1. Yeasts and Fungi

Filamentous Fungi used for SCP production are Chaetomium celluloliticum,
Fusarium
graminearum, Paecilomyces varioti which grows on cellulose
waste, starch, and sulphite waste liquor respectively and content about 50
55 % protein.
SCP is produced from yeasts viz. Candida utilis, Candida lipolytica,
Saccharomyces cervicea.
Torula yeast (which grows on Ethanol) as a food is obtained through
fermentation using molasses as substrate and it has high protein
carbohydrate ratio than forages. It is rich in lysine but poor in methionine
and cysteine. Saccharomyces consists of high protein with good balance of
amino acids and rich in Bcomplex vitamins. It is more suitable as poultry
feed.
Yeast are higher in lysine content.
Strict aseptic conditions are required when using Yeast as a SCP
production.
Disadvantages:
High nucleic acid content.
Slow growth is observed in Fungi vis--vis than yeast & bacteria.
Contamination risk.
Mycotoxins are also produced.

2.

Bacteria

They have more than 80% protein but are poor in sulphur containing
amino acids.
Brevibacterium uses hydrocarbons while Methylophilus methylitropous

At Murugappa Chettiar Research

Centre
(MCRC, Madras) food-grade spirulina
is cultivated and the products are
3. Algae:
distributed to the local
Chlorella, Scenedesmus
acutus
and Spirulina maxima are grown
undernourished
children.
for SCP.
These have about 60% protein with good amino acid composition
but less in sulphur containing amino acids.
Chlorella and Spirulina are used for commercial scale production
in Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Israel, Mexico and USA.
It is spray dried and sold as pills and powders.
Disadvantages:
As they are rich in Chlorophyll, it is not advised for human
consumption (except Spirulina).
It has low density i.e. 1-2 gm dry weight/litre of substrate.
There is lot of risk of contamination during growth.
The United Nations Organization(UNO) in its World
Food Conference of 1974 declared Spirulina as the
best food for tomorrow.
World Health Organization(WHO) has hailed Spirulina
the greatest super food on the earth.
Upon testing it NASA scientists found 1 kg of Spirulina

The Nutritional Values of Elken Spirulina

Nutritional value is
14 times higher than cows milk.
Excellent source of quick supply of glucose
to the blood.
Contains over 13 types of vitamins and is the
richest
vegetative source of B12 in the world.
Excellent source of minerals (more than 13
types of minerals).
Contains 4 types of natural pigments
including beta carotene
Contains all the 8 essential amino acids.
Complete in nutritional value that it is used
as food for
astronauts.
It is recognised a safe and
nutritious food source by:
UN Food & Agricultural
Organisation (FAO)
World Health Organisation
Certified free of microcystins

Microorganism
Algae

Substrate

Used as

Used commercially

Chlorella sp.

CO2+ sunlight

Feed

Scenedesmus acutus
Spirulina maxima
Yeasts
Candida utilis (Torula
Yeast)

CO2+ sunlight
CO2+ sunlight

Feed

1. Confectionery

2. Ethanol

Feed

3. Sulphite liquor

C. intermedia
C. krusei (+
Lactobacillus
bulgarius)

Whey

Yes (U.K.), Symba

process
Yes (USA)
Yes (Europe, USA,
Russia)
Yes; Vienna process

Whey

Yes; Kiel process

Yes (Japan and

Taiwan)

Yes (Mexico)

n-alkanes (C10- C23) +

ammonia

Yes (Russia)

Whey

Food

Yes (France); Le Bel

process

Molasses

(Food)*

Yes

Cellulosic wastes

Promising

Starch hydrolysate

Yes (U.K)

Paecilomyces varioti

Sulphite liquor

Bacteria

C. lipolytica
Kluyveromyces
fragilis
Saccharomyces
cerevisiae
Fungi
Chaetomium
cellulolyticum
Fusarium
graminearum

Yes (Finland); Pekilo

process

Properties of
SCP

One of the main advantages of SCP compared to other types of protein

is the small doubling time of cells (td) as shown in Table
TABLE
:2

Organism

Mass
Doubling

Bacteria and yeast

10-120 min

Mold and Algae

2-6h

Grass and some

plants

1-2wk

Chickens

2-4 wk

Pigs

4-6 wk

Cattle

1-2 mo

People

0.2-0.5 yrs

Due to this property, the productivity

of protein from micro-organisms is
greater than that of traditional
proteins
Efficiency
Efficiency of
of protein
protein production
production of
of several
several protein
protein sources
sources in
in 24
24 hours
hours (( ))
16
16

TABLE
:3

Organism
(1,000 kg)

Amount of
Protein

Beef Cattle
Soybeans
Yeast
Bacteria

1.0 kg
10.0 kg
100.0 tn
100x10,000,000
tn

Bacterial protein is similar to fish protein, yeast's

protein resembles soya and the fungi protein is
somewhat lower than the yeast's. Of course
microbiological proteins are deficient in the sulphur
amino acids cysteine and methionine and require
supplementation, while they exhibit better levels of
lysine.

Essential amino acid content of the cell

TABLEprotein in comparison with several
:4
reference proteins
Cell of amino acid per 100 grams of
(grams
ulo Saccha Spiruli PeniciIl Wheat
Egg
Cow
protein)
Amino
mo romyce
na
lium
milk
Acids

nas

s
cerevic
ia

maxim
a

notatu
m

Lysine

7.6

7.7

4.6

3.9

2.8

6.3

7.8

Threonine

5.4

4.8

4.6

2.9

5.0

4.6

Methionin
e

2.0

1.7

1.4

1.5

3.2

2.4

Cysteine

0.4

2.5

2.4

Tryptopha
n

1.0

1.4

1.25

1.1

1.6

Isoleucine

5.3

4.6

6.0

3.2

3.3

6.8

6.4

Valine

6.5

3.9

5.4

3.9

4.4

7.4

6.9

Phenylala

4.6

4.1

5.0

3.9

4.4

7.4

6.9

Other nutritional parameters which

evaluate the quality of a given SCP are:
- the digestibility (D)
- the biological value (BV)
- the protein efficiency ratio (PER)
- the net protein utilisation (NPU)

The quality of SCP is an important factor for

commercial production.
1. First parameter which reflects the quality
of a protein, is the is the percentage of
the total nitrogen Digestibility Coefficient
consumed which is absorbed from the
digestive tract.
2. Estimation of the Biological Value (BV) is
a measure of nitrogen retained for
growth or maintenance.
3. An accurate method to evaluate the
quality of proteins is the determination of
the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER),
expressed in terms of weight gain per
unit of protein consumed by the test
animal in short-term feeding trials.

Nitrogen and Protein contents of microbial

cells compared with selected foods of
animal and plant origin
TABLE
:5

Nitrogen
(%)

Crude
Protein
(%)

Filamentous
fungi

5-8

31-50

Algae

7.5-10

47-63

Yeast

7.5-8.5

47-53

Bacteria

11.5-12.5

72-78

Milk

3.5-4.0

22-25

Beef

13-14.4

81-90

Egg

5.6

35

Rice

1.2-1.4

7.5-9.0

Wheat Flour

1.6-2.2

9.8-13.5

Source

Kharatyan(1

Problem of Nucleic
Acids

About 70-80% of the total cell nitrogen is represented by

amino acids while the
rest occurs in nucleic acids.
This concentration of nucleic acids is higher than other
conventional proteins and
is characteristic of all fast growing organisms.
The problem which occurs from the consumption of proteins
with high
concentration of nucleic acids (78 g/100 g protein dry
weight) is the high level
of uric acid in the blood, sometimes resulting in the
disease gout.
Uric acid is a product of purine metabolism.
Most mammals, reptiles and molluscs possess the enzyme
uricase, and the end
product of purine metabolism is allantoin.
Man, birds and some reptiles lack the enzyme uricase and
the end product of
purine degradation is uric acid.

Cell wall destruction:

Non Mechanical Methods:
1. Chemical treatment: acid, base, solvent, detergent
2. Enzyme analysis: lytic enzymes, phage infection, auto lysis
3. Physical treatment: freeze- thaw, osmotic shock, heating
and drying.
Mechanical Methods:
4. High pressure homogenization
5. Wet milling
6. Sonification
7. Pressure extrusion: French press,
8. Decompression (pressure chamber)
9. Treatment with grinding particles(Engler,

Basic Steps of SCP

production:
Preparation of suitable
medium with suitable
carbon source.
Cultivation of suitable
strain of
microorganisms
Prevention of
contaminations
Separation of microbial

General process for production of

SCP

1) It requires pure culture of chosen organism that is in the correct

physiological state, sterilization of the growth medium which is
used for the organism, a production fermentor which is the
equipment used for drawing the culture medium in the steady
state, cell separation, collection of cell free supernatant, product
purification and effluent treatment.
2) A fermentor is the instrument, which is set up to carry out the
process of fermentation.
3) Fermentor is also equipped with an aerator, which supplies
oxygen to aerobic processes also a stirrer is used to keep the
concentration of the medium the same.
4) A thermostat is used to regulate temperature and a pH detector
and some other control devices, which keep all the different
parameters needed for growth constant.
5) For the producing and harvesting of microbial proteins cost is a
major problem. Such a production even in high rate causes dilute
solutions usually less than 5% solids. There are many methods
available for concentrating the solutions like filtration,
precipitation, centrifugation and the use of semi-permeable
membranes. The equipment used for these methods of dewatering is expensive and so would not be suitable for small scale

Rudravaram et al.,

Raw
material

Cheese
whey

Ethanol

Nparaffins

Sulfite
waste

Organism

Kluyveromyces
fragilis

Candida utilis

Candida
guillienmondis

Candida utilis

Scale

Product

Organizatio
n

Universal
Foods
5000
Food yeast
Corporation
tons/yea fermentatio
,
r
n nutrient
Juneau,
Wisconsin
Torula
yeast, food
ingredient

Pure
culture
products,
Hutchinson,
Minnesota

20,000
to
40,000 Food yeast
tons/yea
r

All Union
Research
Institute of
Protein
Biosynthesi
s,
USSR

10,000
tons/yea
r

15
tons/yea

Torula
yeast

Rhinelender
paper
corporation

Raw
material

Organism

Scale

Glucose
(Food
Grade)

Fusarium
graminearium

50-100
tons/yea
r

Cheese
whey

Penicillium
cyclopium

300
tons/yea
r

Animal
feed

Heurty ,
S.A.,France

Coffee
waste

Trichoderma
harzianum

40,000
lit

Animal
feed

ICAITI,Guatema
la and El
Salvador

Animal
feed(Peki
lo
protein)

Tampela and
Finnish Pulp
and paper
Research
Institute,Jamsa
nkoski, Finland

Sulfite
waste
liquor

Pulp mill
wastes

Paecilomyces
varioti

Chaetomium
cellulyticum

10,000
tons/yea
r

1
tons/day

Product

Organization

Mycoprot
Ranks Hovis Mc
ein
Dougall, High
(human
Wycombe,UK
food)

Envirocon
Ltd,Vancouver,
Animal
BC,
feed(Wat
Canada;Univers
erloo
ity of
process)

Organism

Chlorella sp.

Raw
material

CO2

Production

Producer or developer

2 metric
tons/day

Taiwan Chlorella
Manufacture
Co.Ltd, Taipei

20
Central Food
grams/
Technological
Scenedesmu CO2,Ur
square
Research
s acutus
ea
meter/da Institute,Mysore,In
y
dia

Spirulina
maxima

CO2, or
320
NaHCO metric
3,
tons/yea
Na2CO3
r

Sosa Texococo,SA
Mexico City

Biomass Harvesting
The microbial biomass can be harvested by a variety of
methods.
Single cell organisms like yeast and bacteria are normally
recovered by centrifugation, flocculation and floatation.
Filamentous organisms are recovered by filtration. It is
important to recover as much water as possible prior to
final drying.
The whole operation is to be done under clean and hygenic
conditions to keep the product and the broth that leaves
the plant free of bacterial contamination.
The final dried products are normally bacteriologically
stable if handled properly.
In some cases, an after-treatment of the biomass is
desirable to reduce the unwanted compounds in the
product or to isolate the protein.
One of the important tasks is to reduce nucleic acid
content, which is high in microorganisms (4-6% in algae,
10-16% in bacteria, 6-10% in yeasts and 2.5-6% in fungi)
and can be hazardous to health.

Economic parameters : The Scope of

SCP production
i. products obtained
via microbiological synthesis
must be competitive with traditional food
sources.
ii. When
estimating
costs
involved
in
SCP
production, such major factors as the biomass
yield, cooling, and oxygen requirements should
be taken into consideration.
iii.They depend not only on the choice of substrate,
but on the choice of the microorganism as well.
All this determines the cost of production and
economic feasibility.
iv.It is obvious that one of the major factors
limiting the use of hydrocarbon yeast is the
residual hydrocarbon content.
v. Demands of the country or its separate regions
for protein of a particular type

ACCEPTABILITY
OF SCP AS A HUMAN FOOD AND ITS
main
safety hazard.
TOXICOLOGY CONCERN

The acceptability of SCP when presented as a

human food does not depend only on its safety and
nutritional value but also the mind frame of people
to consume material derived from microbes which
is concerned to social and ethical issues like
psychological, sociological and religious
implications.
A more intensive clinical and toxicology testing
including short-term acute toxicity testing (animal
species) and followed by extensive and detailed
long term studies.

The ET Process plant

in Fresno, CA, owned
by Cottonwood Creek
Biosystems, takes in
tankered grease and
food processing
wastes and generates
single cell protein
and dischargeable
water.

Sample of the single cell

protein biosolids after
the drum dryer.

Effect of different agricultural waste material(Pretreated with

0.6N H2SO4)as a carbon source on the production of single
cell protein by Penicellium expansum when cultural grow for
24 hours with initial pH 4.0 at 282C
TABLE
:8
Wt. of Biomass
Reducing Sugar
Agricultural wastes
mg/ml

Broth Protein

% of Protein
Final pH
(Nx6.25)

G/Litres

mg/ml

Sugar cane
Baggase

5.13

0.3169

0.32

0.45

15.53

Orange peel

5.03

0.3142

0.40

0.58

09.89

Wheat straw

5.80

0.3190

0.32

0.37

06.48

Cotton
seeds

6.80

0.4205

0.24

0.20

16.66

Cajanus
cajan seeds

6.02

0.5344

0.35

1.26

10.94

Castor been

6.68

0.3277

0.33

0.085

11.62

Rice Husk

7.60

1.64

0.25

0.86

18.25

Table represents the results of total biomass weight and the

percentage of protein of mycelial biomass of Penicillium
expansum grown on 0.6NH2SO4 pretreated agricultural
wastes. The higher amount of single cell protein (1.64 g/L)
with higher percentage of protein content (18.25%)
was
Khan(20

TABLE :
11

The protein produced by Candida langeronii in the bagasse

hemicellulose hydrolysate contains most of the amino acids
essential for animal feed and its quality is comparable to soy
bean protein . Its high lysine and threonine content suggest
that this yeast protein should be utilized as a feed
(2000
supplement, specially in diets based on cereals Nigam
(Kihlberg

The main components of the feed for cultured marine animals in

China are microalgae and fish meal. However, production of
microalgae and fish meal on large scale is facing many problems due
to the contamination and the limited bioresources. Marine yeasts
would be better candidates for marifeed production according to
their easy cultivation in the fermentor, high cell density, and high
content of essential amino acids. Therefore, more than 300 marine
yeast strains were evaluated for SCP production in this study. The
yeast Cryptococcus aureusG7a strain which was isolated from
sediment of South China Sea was a better candidate based on its cell
Time course (10.1g/l),
of cell growth (open
growth
the crude protein content (53.0g per 100g of cell
square), SCP production (filled
dry
weight),
and
the wide range of carbon sources used by it.
square),
reducing sugar
(diamond),
and total sugar (filled triangle) during
the 2-l fermentation by the G7a
strain. Data are given as means
SD,n=3. The media: the seawater
containing 6.0g of wet weight of
Jerusalem artichoke extract per
100ml of medium and 4.0g of the
hydrolysate of soybean cake per
100ml of medium; incubation time:
4days; pH: 5.0; temperature: 28C;
aeration level: 6l/min; agitation:
200rpm

Essential
Arg His Ile Leu Lys

Nonessential

EA
AI

Me Ph
As
Pro Thr Val Ala
Cys Glu Gly Ser Tyr
0.9
t
e
p

EAAI (Feng and Zhao

1997). Values of about
>0.95 indicate high
quality; about 0.860.95
good quality; about 0.75
0.86, useful; about

instar larvae of D.melanogaster X 31.25

in the application of 100%
concentration (MediumIX),
first adult was observed at
the 8th day after mating.
That is, metamorphosis was
completed one day ago in
this medium.
On the other hand, it was
also observed that the body
sizes of larvae of

Uysal et al., (2002

The gain in weight of fish from all treatments of male group was
higher than female group and treatment with 3% SP. However, it was
highest in treatment control in female group but non-significantly
Umphan et al., (2009

Single cell proteins have

application
in animal nutrition as:
fattening calves, poultry, pigs
and fish breading
in the foodstuffs area as:
aroma carriers, vitamin carrier,
emulsifying aids and to improve
the nutritive value of baked
products, in soups, in ready-toserve meals, in diet recipes and
in the technical field as:
paper processing, leather
processing and as foam
stabilizers.

Medicinal uses of Spirulina

Strengthen and improve immune system
Phycocyanins build blood cells
Increase antiviral activity
Exhibits anti cancer activity
The US Olympic teams take spirulina tablet as a
source of instant energy.
Studies showed that spirulina consumption of 4
weeks reduced serum cholestrol level in human
beings by 4.5%(Henrikson 1994) and significantly
reduced body weight by 1.40.4 kg after 4
weeks(Becker et al 1986)
There is no changes in clinical parameters (Blood
Pressure)
or
in
biochemical
variables
(haematocrit,
haemoglobin,
blood
cells,
sedimentation rate) and absence of adverse

Biolipsticks and herbal face creams are

produced in Japan from the phycocyanin
pigment of Spirulina.

Formulati
on of SCP

Generally, single-cell protein is initially produced as awet

paste andthen is subsequently converted into dry powder
form.
One of the advantages of the powderformulation is ahigher
chemical stability than the solution.
This dry powder, similar in appearance andfeeltoflour,
lacksthetexture and food-like sensation to the
mouthnecessary to make an attractive food.
Moreover, when placed in water, the powdered single cell
protein rapidly reverts back to single-cell form.
To overcome this disadvantage, we can convert our
obtainedSCP to other edible form like chocolate.
Chocolate powder serves multiple purpose ofcross linking
agent,taste maker, andflavouring agent.
Liquid chocolate can alsobe usedforthe same.Within
economic constraints some otherflavouring agents or fruits
can be used.
Flavouring agentshould be such thatitadds to the nutritive
value along with taste andfragrance.Chocolates are
consumedby people ofall agesfrom childhoodto adulthood.
In any stage of life, protein intake is necessary so
convertingSCP to chocolateformwill increase the

Conclusion
Single celled protein (SCP) production, referring to
the fact that most of the micro-organisms used as
producers grow as single or filamentous individuals
rather than as complex multi-cellular organism such
as plants or animals.
Use of microbes in the production of proteins gives
many advantages over the conventional methods.
Microbes have shorter generation time, allow easy
transformation, utilize many substrates, have no
requirements in arable land or any particular
season to grow and have the possibility of
continuous production in any part of the world.
The cell yield varies according to the substrate and
type of microorganism.

For future
success of SCP
First,
food technology problems
have to be solved in order to
make it similar to familiar
foods and
Second,
the production should
compare favourably with