The growing demand for high value added products (which include natural substances, active ingredients with nutritional and functional value) along with improvements in production processes and legal requirements are forcing the industry to improve product quality without generating waste, adapting them more to consumption trends (dietary foods, drugs with added properties, cosmetics with natural essences, functional foods, biological products, among others).

The aim of this project is to deal with the production of ethyl laurate production, which could be defined as “natural” according to Regulation (CE) No 1334/2008 . Thus, this proposal aims to develop a new methodology using a biocatalyst type lipàsic based on resting fungal cells for the production of ethyl laurate from lauric acid present in coconut oil and ethanol.