The demand for sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of foods and cosmetics is increasing owing to concerns about the rapid growth of the global population and climate change. Microorganisms are promising cell factories in which to produce various food and cosmetic ingredients. However, the commercialization of microbial-based food and cosmetic compounds is still limited by the insufficient performances of microbial strains and processes. Systems metabolic engineering can improve the performance of microorganisms. In this Review, we highlight food and cosmetic compounds that can be produced using microorganisms. We then discuss systems metabolic engineering, with its different phases that include production mode and host selection, metabolic pathway reconstruction, tolerance enhancement, metabolic flux and fermentation process optimization, downstream process integration and scale-up, which can be optimized to improve the development of high-performance microbial processes. Finally, we overview the current limitations and future directions of industrializing microbial processes for the production of food and cosmetic compounds.

由于对全球人口快速增长和气候变化的担忧，对可持续和环保食品和化妆品来源的需求不断增加。微生物是有前途的细胞工厂，可用于生产各种食品和化妆品成分。然而，基于微生物的食品和化妆品化合物的商业化仍然受到微生物菌株和工艺性能不足的限制。系统代谢工程可以提高微生物的性能。在这篇评论中，我们重点介绍了可以使用微生物生产的食品和化妆品化合物。然后我们讨论系统代谢工程，其不同阶段包括生产模式和宿主选择、代谢途径重建、耐受性增强、代谢通量和发酵工艺优化、下游工艺集成和放大，可以通过优化来提高高性能微生物工艺的开发。最后，我们概述了用于生产食品和化妆品化合物的微生物工艺工业化的当前局限性和未来方向。