Food enzymes can degrade, alter, or synthesize components of foods via which categories of biochemical reactions during processing and preservation?

Introduction:
Food processing leverages enzymes to tailor texture, flavour, colour, and nutrition. Enzymes catalyse many reaction classes, and modern process design exploits these to achieve predictable quality. Understanding the breadth of reaction types clarifies why enzymes are powerful, selective tools compared to purely thermal or chemical methods.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Scope: enzyme-mediated transformations in foods.
• Reaction classes listed span redox, hydrolytic, synthetic, isomerization, and transfer reactions.
• Question asks if one or all classes are relevant.

Concept / Approach:
Enzymes are grouped by the reaction they catalyse. In foods, hydrolases (for example, proteases, amylases, lipases) drive texture and sweetness changes; oxidoreductases (for example, glucose oxidase) manage oxygen and flavour stability; isomerases (for example, glucose isomerase) adjust sugar profiles; transferases move functional groups influencing structure and functionality; ligases and synthases enable bond formation in specialty applications.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Industrial examples affirm the breadth: glucose isomerase for high-fructose corn syrup, transglutaminase for protein cross-linking (group transfer), lipoxygenase control for colour, and glucose oxidase for oxygen scavenging. These span multiple enzyme classes, confirming the comprehensive answer.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Oxidation / reduction / isomerization: Only a subset of relevant classes.
• Hydrolysis / synthesis: Important but not exclusive.
• Group transfer: Valuable yet incomplete alone.

Common Pitfalls:
Assuming one class dominates all outcomes leads to suboptimal process design. Overlooking isomerization or transfer reactions may miss opportunities to improve sweetness, solubility, or texture efficiently.

Final Answer:
all of the above