FERMENTATIVE PRODUCTION OF POLYOLS AND UTILIZATION FOR FOOD AND OTHERPRODUCTS IN JAPAN

Polyols are widely distributed in nature, for example in lichens, mush rooms, fruits, lens, semen, and some fermented foods such as wine, Jap anese sake, or soy sauce. Among them, glycerol, sorbitol and mannitol are industrially produced at present and used as chemical or food ingr edients due to their specific characteristics. Erythritol, a C4-sugar alcohol, was considered to be used as ingredient of food, chemicals an d pharmaceuticals. Moreover erythritol can be chemically synthesized o r biochemically produced. However, since a mass production process of erythritol has not been developed yet, the chemical, physical and phys iological properties have not been studied thoroughly. In this paper p olyol fermentation from glucose as a substrate will be described, with emphasis placed on the screening and isolation of microorganisms whic h produce erythritol in high yield. Furthermore physicochemical and ph ysiological properties of etythritol, and its utilization for food and other products will be discussed.