https://doi.org/10.17113/ftb.64.01.26.9445

Sourcing Vanillin via Fermentative Biotechnology

Stefanie Schmid^1§, Beate Berchtold^1§ and Harald Pichler^1,2,3,4*

¹Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 14, 8010 Graz, Austria

²Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib GmbH), Krenngasse 37, 8010 Graz, Austria

³NAWI Graz, Mozartgasse 12/2, 8010 Graz, Austria

⁴BioTechMed Graz, Mozartgasse 12/2, 8010 Graz, Austria

Copyright © 2024 This is a Diamond Open Access article published under CC-BY licence. Copyright remains with the authors, who grant third parties the unrestricted right to use, copy, distribute and reproduce the article as long as the original author(s) and source are acknowledged.

Food Technol. Biotechnol. 2026; 64(1): pp. 126-136.

Article history:

Received: 26 October 2025

Accepted: 16 March 2026

Keywords:

vanillin; biotechnology; recombinant hosts; biotransformation; vanillin toxicity; in situ product removal

The content of this publication has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States.

Summary:

Less than 1 % of the annual worldwide consumption of vanillin can be met by extracting the aromatic compound from vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) pods. For 150 years, vanillin has also been derived through chemical synthesis, which remains the main source (>80 %) of vanillin today, despite growing environmental concerns due to considerable chemical waste disposal issues. ‘Natural’ vanillin is in high demand for flavour and fragrance applications. Thus, biotechnological routes using an array of recombinant hosts have been devised to obtain vanillin through fermentation of natural precursors, e.g. ferulic acid, (iso)eugenol and glucose. These processes, often classical biotransformations, result in ‘natural’ vanillin according to European and US legislation. A significant technical hurdle in fully fermentative routes is vanillin toxicity, which impairs cellular proliferation at relatively low, i.e. commercially uninteresting, vanillin concentrations. In addition to adopting the plant-derived solution, i.e. product glycosylation, to sequester and store vanillin glycosides, sophisticated in situ product removal strategies have been used to obtain industrially relevant amounts of ‘natural’ vanillin.