The fermentation principle

With fermentation (lat. fermentum: leaven) biotechnology refers to converting organic materials using bacteria, mushroom and cell cultures or else by adding enzymes. This allows medical products, for example, such as insulin, hyaluronic acid and a range of antibiotics such as penicillin, to be industrially synthesised in bioreactors with the help of microorganisms.

Microorganisms are able to form materials that cannot be produced, or only with great difficulty, chemically. During the fermentation of Effective Microorganisms, strong anti-oxidising, supporting substances (enzymes, vitamins, amino acids, bioactive substances, …) are produced instead of decomposition and there are no life-threatening metabolites (such as ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, …) that are produced.

The best example of fermentation is the production of sauerkraut. During this process, nutrition that is rich in vitamin C is produced from raw cabbage which is low in vitamin C. This is induced by the fermentative bacteria, especially lactic acid cultures in this case.