Edible bioreactors and compositions thereof
AssigneeFoodberry, Inc.
InventorsMartin KOLEWE, Christopher HANGO, Kristen ENRIGHT, David EDWARDS
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to edible compositions, and more specifically, edible bioreactors comprising an edible membrane wherein the membrane is a bioreactor vessel, the membrane encapsulates a bioreactor vessel or a composition comprising active biological materials, or the membrane causes, affects, or interacts with a bioreaction; in addition to processes for making the edible bioreactors, and methods for producing edible products using the edible bioreactors.
Claims31
An edible bioreactor, comprising (e.g., consisting of) an edible core and an edible membrane encapsulating the core, wherein the edible membrane supports a bioreaction in the edible core.
An edible bioreactor, comprising (e.g., consisting of) an edible core, a first edible membrane encapsulating the edible core, and a second edible membrane encapsulating the first edible membrane, wherein:
- (i) the first edible membrane inoculates the edible core (or a component within the edible core, such as an active culture) and the second edible membrane supports a bioreaction;
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- (ii) the edible core inoculates the first edible membrane (or a component within the first edible membrane, such as an active culture) and the second edible membrane supports a bioreaction.
The edible bioreactor of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the edible membrane, first edible membrane, and/or second edible membrane supports an upstream process, a downstream process, or both an upstream process and a downstream process of a bioreaction in the edible core.
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The edible bioreactor of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the edible core comprises a liquid, solid, semi-solid, foam, or a combination thereof, and is optionally frozen.
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A process for making an edible bioreactor of any one of the preceding claims, comprising the steps of:
- (i) combining a substrate and an active culture to make an edible core component;
- (ii) freezing the edible core component to provide a frozen edible core component;
- (iii) optionally, shaping the frozen edible core component, e.g., into a sphere;
- (iv) submerging the frozen edible core component in liquid nitrogen to obtain a super-frozen edible core component;
- (v) submerging the super-frozen edible core component in an edible membrane precursor (e.g., an alginate bath), thereby encapsulating the super-frozen edible core component with the edible membrane, to provide an encapsulated edible core;
- (vi) optionally, submerging the encapsulated edible core in a second edible membrane precursor, to provide an encapsulated edible core comprising multiple edible membranes;
- (vii) submerging the encapsulated edible core of step (v) or (vi) in a crosslinking bath (e.g., a chitosan crosslinking bath, or a calcium crosslinking bath), thereby crosslinking the edible membrane or second edible membrane to provide an edible bioreactor.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.