The brief introduction of Biotechnology

Tempeh is one of food that is made from biotechnological aspect

One of the best solution in preventing the world hunger is by implementing the biotechnology in the world of wood preservation. Actually, biotechnology has been used for a long time ago since the humanity knew about how to preserve the food. The traditional activities in making dairy products like cheese and curd, beverage such as wine and beer are the part of biotechnology.

In biotechnology, the involvement of microorganism plays important role. Genetic changes of organisms during the process of making or preserving the food or beverages are essential process. For instance, in the process of fermentation, the preparation and manufacturing are started by providing the microorganisms with glucose which can be obtained from alcohol, wine, milk, vinegar. However, in the world of biotechnology, the process of fermentation which is similar with the previous explanation is called as traditional biotechnology. Although it can be considered that the fermentation process involved the yeast or bacteria as the working organism, still the method is traditional.

Regarding to the modern biotechnology, the process of making food or preserving food actually is similar with the traditional biotechnology. The difference lies only on the method, the others things including the use of living organisms are the same.

What is the definition of Biotechnology
If we translate it literally, the biotechnology comes from two words which are biology and technology. Literally speaking, we might have understood that the meaning of biotechnology is the use of technology based on biological aspect. However, it sounds to general. Therefore, according to high qualified institution, the biotechnology is defined as the process of controlling living things or organisms or biological agents to produce biological components that can be utilized for any aspects of life. And one of those utilization is the food preservation.

The history has been informing us about the use of biotechnology. In ancient times, the biotechnology is used to produce herbs for medicine, making bread, wine, and beer. And sometimes the biotechnology is used to preserve the food like in the production of yogurt and cheese which was used to save the rest of uneaten milk.

Ancient Indus people who lived in the Indus river, now in India, used the biotechnology to prepare fermented foods, beverages, and medicines. For the ancient civilization of Egypt and Sumeria, they used the biotechnology to brew wine by using yeast and to bake bread. On the other hand, the utilization and functionalization of bacteria in addition to produce vinegar had been used by the People in Mesopotamia. Today, for instance, the Indonesian people use yeast to produce Tempeh from soy bean and also to produce Tapeh from the rice, cassava and many more.