Difference between revisions of "Team:Austin UTexas/Integrated Practices"

 
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<h2> Integrated Practices </h2>
 
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<p>The Kombucha industry is prominent in Austin, Texas because of the beverage's supposed health benefits. Local brands include Buddha’s Brew, Wunder-Pilz, Kosmic Kombucha, Live Soda Kombucha, and K-Tonic. We reached out to the Austin kombucha community to learn more about the industry and what characteristics they would want to see in designer kombucha.
 
<p>The Kombucha industry is prominent in Austin, Texas because of the beverage's supposed health benefits. Local brands include Buddha’s Brew, Wunder-Pilz, Kosmic Kombucha, Live Soda Kombucha, and K-Tonic. We reached out to the Austin kombucha community to learn more about the industry and what characteristics they would want to see in designer kombucha.
  
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<p>We met a couple of times with Greg Goodman, the founder of K-Tonic Kombucha, to discuss his company and the kombucha industry. We learned about his company’s brewing process, challenges they face, and the properties he would want to see in designer kombucha. We signed non-disclosure and non-compete agreements to protect his business, so while much of what we learned informed our project, a lot of this information cannot be shared.
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<p>We met a couple of times with Greg Goodman, the founder of K-Tonic Kombucha, to discuss his company and the kombucha industry. We learned about his company’s brewing process, challenges they face, and the properties he would want to see in designer kombucha. We signed non-disclosure and non-compete agreements to protect his business.  So, while much of what we learned informed our project, a lot of this information cannot be shared as it may reveal trade secrets currently possessed or being pursued by K-Tonic Kombucha. In fact, we reviewed our Human Practices drafts with Mr. Goodman prior to publishing them online to ensure we didn't divulge anything that he would prefer to remain private.
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<p>Goodman was curious about finding out what specific microbes are present in his kombucha, and was especially interested in the amount of “good bacteria” present.  He also expressed interest in minimizing the brew time of his beverage without affecting its flavor profile.
  
 
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<p>Goodman was curious about finding out what specific microbes are present in his kombucha. In addition, he was interested in the potency of a brew, in terms of “good bacteria,” and how to make the most non-alcoholic brew(thus in a reduction of ethanol). He also discussed the potential to cut down the brewing time without losing the flavor profile of the beverage.
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<p>Goodman stated that the primary demographic of Kombucha drinkers prefer organic, natural foods and beverages. Unless there was an obvious perceived benefit, using GMOs to make kombucha would alienate consumers.
  
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<p>Goodman stated that the primary demographic of Kombucha drinkers prefer organic, natural foods and beverages. Thus, they would be unlikely to accept GMOs. Unless there was an obvious perceived benefit, adding GMOs would alienate consumers.  
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<p>Goodman confirmed that minimizing the amount of ethanol in kombucha is an ongoing concern in the industry. The yeast in kombucha produce ethanol during the fermentation process. Ethanol content increases on supermarket shelves as living yeast continue to ferment the beverage, restricting the drink’s shelf life. In fact, the shelf life of kombucha is directly dependent on the ethanol production in the beverage over time. While most kombucha can still be consumed past the expiration date, it cannot be sold as a non-alcoholic beverage. Most kombucha is marketed as non-alcoholic, dictating a legal maximum ethanol content of 0.5% at any point before being purchased by the consumer. This requirement places such a strain on kombucha brewers that Kombucha Brewers International, a trade association for the kombucha industry, is attempting to have the limit raised to over 1%. Increasing kombucha’s shelf life by slowing its rate of ethanol production would enable kombucha companies to become more competitive and widen their market. Companies could produce more product without having to worry as much about losing profits due to unsold, expired kombucha.  
  
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<p>Goodman confirmed that minimizing the amount of ethanol in kombucha is an ongoing concern in the industry. The yeast in kombucha produce ethanol during the fermentation process. Ethanol content increases on supermarket shelves as live yeast continue to ferment the beverage, restricting the drink’s shelf life. Most kombucha is marketed as non-alcoholic, dictating a legal maximum ethanol content of 0.5% at any point before being purchased by the consumer. This requirement places such a strain on kombucha brewers. Kombucha Brewers International, a trade association for the kombucha industry, is attempting to have the limit raised to over 1% ethanol content in order to reduce this strain. Currently commercial kombucha has a limited shelf life and thus it would be ideal to increase this time period. This would enable kombucha companies to be more competitive and widen their market.  
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<p><b>Our interaction with Goodman greatly influenced the course of our project, especially in regards to our attempt to reduce kombucha’s ethanol content. Ethanol reduction became a key consideration when determining what characteristics would be most valuable in designer kombucha. In consideration of the attitudes of kombucha consumers toward GMOs, we hope it may be possible to find microbes naturally more capable of quickly converting ethanol to acetic acid. This would decrease the rate of production of ethanol in the drink, thereby increasing the shelf life of the beverage.
  
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<p> We also discussed determining a method to decrease the brewing time of the drink to save on time and effort. While this could be achieved by fermenting the kombucha at a higher temperature, using current methods the flavor of the drink would be altered. Synthetic biology could potentially be used to decrease the brewing time. In addition, .
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<p>Our meetings with Goodman also led us to consider another factor we had previously not thought about, the flavor of the drink. Potential genetic modifications that we make to the beverage cannot alter the taste. Unfortunately, we cannot taste test our sample recapitulations in lab, and thus we need to device an alternative method to determine the flavor. This could be done by possibly working with kombucha outside of the traditional lab setting.</b>
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<p><b>Our interaction with Goodman greatly influenced the course of our project, especially in regards to our attempt to reduce kombucha’s ethanol content. While our initial approach to the problem was to genetically engineer the microbes to produce less ethanol, we altered our methods to instead look for microbes that convert ethanol to acetic acid at a faster rate. </b>
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<p>Here are two examples of excellent Integrated Human Practices work from 2015:</p>
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<li><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-CeBiTec/Practices">Bielefeld 2015</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://2015.igem.org/Team:Edinburgh/Practices">Edinburgh 2015</a></li>
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Latest revision as of 03:11, 20 October 2016

Integrated Practices

For the integrated practices requirement we used insight from Greg Goodman, founder of a local kombucha company, and applied it to our project.

The Kombucha industry is prominent in Austin, Texas because of the beverage's supposed health benefits. Local brands include Buddha’s Brew, Wunder-Pilz, Kosmic Kombucha, Live Soda Kombucha, and K-Tonic. We reached out to the Austin kombucha community to learn more about the industry and what characteristics they would want to see in designer kombucha.

We met a couple of times with Greg Goodman, the founder of K-Tonic Kombucha, to discuss his company and the kombucha industry. We learned about his company’s brewing process, challenges they face, and the properties he would want to see in designer kombucha. We signed non-disclosure and non-compete agreements to protect his business. So, while much of what we learned informed our project, a lot of this information cannot be shared as it may reveal trade secrets currently possessed or being pursued by K-Tonic Kombucha. In fact, we reviewed our Human Practices drafts with Mr. Goodman prior to publishing them online to ensure we didn't divulge anything that he would prefer to remain private.

Goodman was curious about finding out what specific microbes are present in his kombucha, and was especially interested in the amount of “good bacteria” present. He also expressed interest in minimizing the brew time of his beverage without affecting its flavor profile.

Members of the UT Austin iGEM team met with Greg Goodman, founder of K Tonic Kombucha.

Goodman stated that the primary demographic of Kombucha drinkers prefer organic, natural foods and beverages. Unless there was an obvious perceived benefit, using GMOs to make kombucha would alienate consumers.

Goodman confirmed that minimizing the amount of ethanol in kombucha is an ongoing concern in the industry. The yeast in kombucha produce ethanol during the fermentation process. Ethanol content increases on supermarket shelves as living yeast continue to ferment the beverage, restricting the drink’s shelf life. In fact, the shelf life of kombucha is directly dependent on the ethanol production in the beverage over time. While most kombucha can still be consumed past the expiration date, it cannot be sold as a non-alcoholic beverage. Most kombucha is marketed as non-alcoholic, dictating a legal maximum ethanol content of 0.5% at any point before being purchased by the consumer. This requirement places such a strain on kombucha brewers that Kombucha Brewers International, a trade association for the kombucha industry, is attempting to have the limit raised to over 1%. Increasing kombucha’s shelf life by slowing its rate of ethanol production would enable kombucha companies to become more competitive and widen their market. Companies could produce more product without having to worry as much about losing profits due to unsold, expired kombucha.

Our interaction with Goodman greatly influenced the course of our project, especially in regards to our attempt to reduce kombucha’s ethanol content. Ethanol reduction became a key consideration when determining what characteristics would be most valuable in designer kombucha. In consideration of the attitudes of kombucha consumers toward GMOs, we hope it may be possible to find microbes naturally more capable of quickly converting ethanol to acetic acid. This would decrease the rate of production of ethanol in the drink, thereby increasing the shelf life of the beverage.

Our meetings with Goodman also led us to consider another factor we had previously not thought about, the flavor of the drink. Potential genetic modifications that we make to the beverage cannot alter the taste. Unfortunately, we cannot taste test our sample recapitulations in lab, and thus we need to device an alternative method to determine the flavor. This could be done by possibly working with kombucha outside of the traditional lab setting.