ABSTRACT
Microorganisms have long been used in the elaboration of foods for human consumption. Practically, every civilization has developed fermentation processes of one sort or another as the basis of their culinary traditions. However, the culture of microorganisms as a source of nourishment, rather than as food transformers, came with the advent of industrial fermentation technology. The first recognition of the value of surplus brewer’s yeast as a feeding supplement for animals by Max Delbrück (1910) was rapidly followed by the production of yeast for food during the ensuing First World War. The novel microbial foods may not have appealed to the conservative human palate, but this drawback was vastly outweighed by the logistic advantage of a high productivity of aerobic fermentations in relatively compact installations. This overriding feature motivated military strategists to draw plans to produce large amounts of yeast and fungal biomass during, as well as between, the two World War periods. The cessation of open worldwide hostilities in the second half of the 20th century could have meant an end to interest in microbial protein production for food. However, new preoccupations regarding malnutrition in third world countries, or political and economic isolation, as in the case of the Soviet Union and China, maintained the scope of microbial fermentations as a practical solution for the production of food, at least in emergency situations.
