Harnessing Chemical Technologies to Create a Sustainable, Prosperous Future for People and Society

Nagano Prefecture is today in the spotlight as a land of fermented foods and longevity. Ferment Valley NAGANO, a project to spread the message about the magic of fermented foods, was launched in November 2023. This public-private-academic partnership has embarked on a wide range of initiatives. One of the academic experts participating in the project is Professor Amano Yoshihiko, Vice President of Shinshu University. Professor Amano has contributed to community development through his research on applying functional properties of plants, microbes, and organisms in general to engineering. He worked, for example, on developing Nagano Brand Local Foods, a food brand launched by the university, and has conducted research on biomass energy using vegetation growing in Nagano. We asked him what he finds special about fermented foods from Nagano — and how to create a better future with the power of chemistry.

Recycling local food waste into brand-name Nagano foods

Shinshu University’s Faculty of Engineering campus lies south of Nagano Station in the city of Nagano. It is located not far from the famed Zenkoji temple in a serene setting surrounded by mountains, where you get a sense of the changing seasons. Professor Amano’s laboratory is in one corner of the campus. He is affiliated with the Faculty of Engineering’s Department of Materials Chemistry. This is a relatively new department: it was created in 2016 through the merger of the faculty’s Department of Material Engineering and Department of Environmental Science and Technology. It describes its mission as “delivering cutting-edge solutions to environmental and energy challenges through the power of chemistry.” It has three main programs: advanced materials engineering, which focuses on creating advanced materials in the environment and energy fields; bioprocess engineering, which focuses on the use and application of renewable resources; and molecular engineering, which focuses on the development and application of new functional materials.

On entering Professor Amano’s lab, you’re greeted by the sight of an electron microscope and other analytical equipment and shelves full of chemicals and test tubes. Using these, he spends his days exploring the untapped potential of the nanoscale world.

The Faculty of Engineering as a whole has an impressive track record of conducting joint research with companies, organizations, and government. Professor Amano has played an instrumental role in it.

Using acetobacter to synthesize cellulose for making paper and clothing fabric. Bacterial cellulose is a subject that Professor Amano has been studying for years.

“An example relating to something familiar like foods is the Nagano Brand Local Foods project (2007-2019), on which we teamed up with the city of Nagano. This project was launched in response to a challenge that had been facing the food industry for some time. With the diversification of the Japanese diet, inadequate technology development capacity and lack of brand power were becoming problems in Nagano as elsewhere in the country. There was a need to develop new products using locally sourced ingredients and train the next generation of talent in the food manufacturing field.”

Shinshu University, or “Shindai” as it is commonly known, set up a continuing education program for technical professionals at food companies in the city of Nagano and a graduate-level food chemistry program for students. The project was undertaken with the support of the university’s School of Medicine and Faculty of Agriculture as well as other relevant bodies. It spawned a series of local food products like Shindai Mushroom Curry, Shindai Mushroom Hashed Beef Mix, Whole Apple Jam, Enoki Yogurt from Shinshu (Shinshu being the historical name of Nagano Prefecture), and Enoki Pie.

The first product to be rolled out, Shindai Mushroom Curry, was a curry made with bunashimeji or beech mushrooms grown in Nagano Prefecture.

“Nagano was Japan’s biggest producer of beech mushrooms, but it had a problem. Production slumped from spring to summer. There was thus a need to develop a competitive value-added product for that time of year. Beech mushrooms were known to possess antioxidant benefits and lower blood pressure. They gave the product real value as a health food. In addition, by utilizing food-processing technology, we succeeded in endowing the product with a mushroomy chewiness and umami that conventional retort-pouched foods fail to deliver. By so doing, we created a powerful brand.” Food-processing technology enhances a product’s quality by optimizing each stage of the production process from production and processing through storage.

Shindai Mushroom Curry made news as a university-branded food developed by faculty and students.

A healthy jam containing polyphenol extracted from apple peel

Nagano Prefecture is a major producer of apples. It also produces many processed apple products like juice, jam, and chips. Apple jam is particularly easy to make because apples contain large amounts of pectin, a natural polysaccharide that gels well. There is a lot of apple jam on the market. Apples are usually described in Japan as being bright red, but Professor Amano’s team noticed that there were no red apple jams.

“Jam wasn’t being made with anthocyanin, a type of polyphenol that is a natural red pigment. That’s because the peel was removed when making jam, and anthocyanin is contained mainly in the peel. On top of that, a huge amount of peel was being discarded, and the cost of disposing of it was a considerable burden for producers. So we came up with Whole Apple Jam by reusing the peel. We zeroed in on a variety of apple that contains a large amount of anthocyanin, the Jonathan. We succeeded in efficiently extracting anthocyanin by adding a food enzyme preparation to the peel.

“Concentrating this extract and adding it to a Fuji-based jam yielded a healthy jam rich in polyphenols. We also succeeded in obtaining a byproduct, galacturonic acid , which is produced during the breakdown of pectin and is known to promote cartilage growth.

“Recently, a beer with added apple extract, called Kourin, has been developed with a corporate partner. The apple from which it’s made, known as the Maypole, was used for pollination rather than as an eating apple and usually thrown away.”

The Nagano Brand Local Foods project is a case in point of how a multitude of food products can be developed by using chemical methods to solve existing problems and add new value. Food items that previously went to waste were effectively utilized. Functional value was created by identifying components that were beneficial to the health and adding them to foods. And custom technologies were used to provide a better taste experience in terms of aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel.

Kourin, a beer created using technology to extract the natural pigment from apples. Faintly red in color, it possesses the crisp acid taste and refreshing aroma of apples.

How mushrooms, the decomposers of the forest, saved the planet

What is the current focus of Professor Amano’s research? He works away seated at the clean bench in his lab, attired in a white lab coat. The petri dish before him contains what looks like fungi. When asked what it is, he replies, “Mushroom fungi.” Mushrooms, incidentally, consist entirely of fungus. They’re the only fungus eaten in its own right. Is the professor creating some new and improved strain of mushroom?

“No, no, I’m not developing an edible mushroom per se. I’m studying the enzymes that the mushroom contains. Enzymes, which consist primarily of proteins, are essential to all organisms. They promote chemical reactions like digestion, absorption, and metabolism. Think of fermentation. In fermentation, koji is used to break down food nutrients so they’re easier to digest and absorb, and amino acids are produced that create umami, right? That’s due to the action of the many enzymes contained in koji.

“What would the earth be like if mushrooms (and mushroom enzymes) didn’t exist? It would probably be covered in layer upon layer of fallen trees dozens of meters thick. One period in the earth’s history is the Carboniferous (about 359 million to 299 million years ago), when thick coal beds were laid down. Coal is formed from trees and other organic matter buried in the ground and transformed through heat and pressure. During the Carboniferous, the earth’s surface was covered in forests of ferns thirty to forty meters tall. During this period, trees evolved a substance called ‘lignin,” which is what makes wood rigid. But no organism existed that had enzymes that could break it down.

“It wasn’t until the next period, the Permian (about 299 million to 251 million years ago), that organisms with enzymes capable of breaking down lignin appeared. Those were the mushrooms. Wood is the largest biomass resource on earth, and mushrooms are still the only thing that can break it down. Mushrooms really are amazing. Studying how to use mushroom enzymes for biomass energy is my lifework.”

Biomass is a renewable resource produced through plant photosynthesis using the sun’s energy. Generally speaking, energy obtained from biomass is counted as zero-carbon in accordance with the concept of carbon neutrality, which means producing no net greenhouse gas emissions. It is considered an energy source with no adverse impact on the environment.

Left: With fellow biomass scientist Mizuno Masahiro (right) in the Department of Materials Chemistry lab. Right: Culturing mushroom fungi in a petri dish.

Mushroom-derived mycoprotein: The next generation of meat substitute

“Besides having a remarkable ability to break down compounds, mushrooms can, like yeast, also ferment alcohol. An old package of enoki mushrooms swells up, right? That’s because it’s full of alcohol. Enoki is a moderate fermenter, while the species we’re studying, Irpex lacteus, is a very powerful fermenter indeed. We’ve already succeeded at using it to produce alcohol in the lab.

“To give an extreme example, you could put wood chips in a tank at home and inoculate them with mushroom fungi. Then when you turned on the faucet, alcohol would come out. The next step would be to hook the tank up to a fuel cell, and you’d be able to generate your own electricity. A future without a power grid would then be achievable, right? Mushrooms could save the world now that we realize that fossil fuels are finite.”

Over the past several years, a move away from eating animal meat has gained momentum out of a desire to be sustainable and protect the environment. There’s growing public interest in veganism and meat substitutes like soy meat.

“Something now attracting attention alongside protein substitutes like soybeans and insects is mycoprotein, a form of protein obtained by culturing and processing mushroom hyphae. It has many advantages, including having a smaller environmental footprint than plant-based proteins produced on farmland. There’s greater interest in alternative meats in the West than in Japan. Nagano Prefecture has embarked on a mycoprotein venture in collaboration with Finland, a leader in the ecology field.”

Mushrooms are something you eat all the time. It’s amazing that besides tasting so good, they also have such potential. Moreover, Nagano is one of Japan’s leading producers of mushrooms. Professor Amano has now set to work on a new biomass material that emerged from the study of mushroom fungi to which he has dedicated his life: sorghum, a cereal related to rice.

A new form of biomass energy harnessing Nagano-grown sorghum

“Almost 20 percent of the farmland in the city of Nagano is now abandoned. Abandoned farmland is especially widespread in upland areas. The city wants to plant sorghum on this abandoned land. Sorghum is a supercrop that grows even in poor soil, and it can be grown continuously on the same land. It can reach a height of three meters or more, depending on the variety, and because it grows so quickly, it can be harvested in six months. It needs no special machinery and requires no agrochemicals. That’s why I’m convinced it can be a problem solver in upland areas where manpower is short.”

The great thing about sorghum is that it can’t just be used once but repeatedly. Any refuse left over can be reused for something else, so that nothing goes to waste. This is called “cascading.”

“After harvesting, the stalks and leaves can be used as an artificial medium for growing enoki mushrooms, whereas until now such materials have had to be imported. They can also be returned to the fields as fertilizer or used as cattle feed. We also envision developing a biomass plant. After harvesting, this would convert the spent medium into gas through methane fermentation, then use it to generate power and heat.

“Sorghum is a healthy food. It’s high in nutrition and rich in polyphenols and GABA (a beneficial amino acid). It contains no gluten, so it’s suitable for people with wheat allergies. On the product development front, we’ve been working with a local startup on turning sorghum into pastries and confections. These have established a strong brand position as Nagano specialties under the name ‘Shinshu Sorghum.’ If a biomass energy source combining sorghum with the advantages of mushrooms can be developed, it will, I believe, serve as a model of circularity and autonomy at the local level, where communities are agents of industrial development, energy production, and protecting agriculture.”

Sorghum stalks and leaves left over after the harvest are used as a medium for growing enoki mushrooms (left). Sorghum (right), a popular crop in the West, has long been cultivated for animal feed in Nagano. It is also known as takakibi or kaoliang.

Traditional fermented foods meet the cutting edge of chemistry: Reinventing Nagano’s food culture

Ferment Valley NAGANO was launched with the goal of telling the world about Nagano’s fermented foods. It’s a collaborative project involving Shinshu University and other universities in Nagano Prefecture, as well as local municipalities and industry organizations. And it’s only just begun. So how can a research institution like a university make a difference in Nagano’s approach to fermented foods?

“Discussions have only just started, but as a university, I believe that we can take two approaches. The first is to explore how the knowledge we’ve built up doing basic research can be applied to food production on the ground. The second is to ask ourselves what solutions our basic research offers to problems identified on the ground. What can we do to help?

“Let me give some examples. The Faculty of Engineering has a robotics research team. Robots gather a wide range of data with their sensors, then analyze it with AI and decide autonomously what to do next. If deployed in facilities where foods are made, they could handle certain tasks that have until now had to be performed by human hands. Of course, we want to offer ideas for a system that would also be sustainable, with the food’s taste and nutritional value being left intact. Also, given that Nagano’s people are known for living long, healthy lives, I think it’ll be important to work on food functionalities and healthy foods. It would strengthen the brand. Extracting polyphenol from waste apple peel and using it to make foods functional is a case in point. And then there are foods traditionally considered good for you. It may be necessary to analyze their functional value by properly gathering chemical evidence.”

Professor Amano says it’s important to gather evidence about the techniques that craftspeople have developed empirically and leave a record of them in data format.

The key question is how to match needs on the ground with the university’s basic research. Even today, most fermented foods have a centuries-long legacy of empirical knowledge behind them. It will be exciting to see what emerges when that knowledge meets the cutting edge of chemistry.

“All kinds of fungi besides yeast are involved in fermentation. How do these fungi behave, and at what point in the process? How do they alter the flavor? It may be important to gather data-based evidence on such questions using technology to process images of microorganisms growing and analyzing them with AI. A major sake brewer in another prefecture got people talking when it computerized the entire sake-making process, which had previously been in the mind of the brewmaster, and stored it as data. In other words, the brewmaster has been eliminated from the brewery. It may be that something game changing is happening in the food industry as well, including traditional foods like fermented foods.

“Still, sake is something consumed for pleasure. The existence of a wide variety of sakes is welcome. Sake doesn’t need to be standardized. Nagano has the second largest number of sake breweries in Japan. What’s more, it has a lot of medium- and small-sized breweries, so it offers quite a variety of flavors. Such individuality should, I think, be preserved.

“Viewed from abroad, Japan’s unique fungi and fermentation technologies must seem fascinating. Each brewery has its own resident yeast. I hope to be able to share such information with a global audience at academic conferences and other forums. It would be really interesting if we could collect evidence on how fermented foods are made in Nagano Prefecture — and not just sake. That would be a real eye-opener.”

According to Professor Amano, humans have so far succeeded in cultivating just 0.1 percent of all the microorganisms that exist. The remaining 99.9 percent have yet to be grown in culture. Which means that somewhere out there, maybe there’s an undiscovered superbug that’s even more powerful than mushroom fungi. But that’s still the realm of fantasy. There are a lot of hoops to jump through before such a thing could be approved for use in foods.

In May, the Ferment Valley NAGANO Innovation Center opened at Shinshu University. The establishment of this facility should lead to an even closer partnership between industry, academia, and government. Let’s stay tuned to see how Nagano’s proud culture of fermented foods evolves when integrated with the power of chemistry.