Enzymes Used In Food Industry
| The Role of the Enzymes | Classification of Enzymes | New Enzymes | Organic Structure |
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Many of the more important industrially useful
enzymes have been referred to earlier. The value of the world enzyme market
has rapidly increased recently from £110M in 1960, £200M in 1970, £270M in
1980, £500M in 1985 to an estimated £1000M for 1990, representing an
increase from 10% of the total catalyst market in 1980 to almost 20% in the
1990s. This increase has reflected the rise in the number of enzymes
available on an industrial scale at relatively
decreasing cost and the
increasing wealth of knowledge concerning enzymes and their potential
applications. As enzyme costs generally represent a small percentage at
most, of the cost of the final product, it can be deduced that enzymes are
currently involved in industrial processes with annual turnovers totalling
many billions of pounds. Several enzymes, especially those used in starch
processing, high-fructose syrup manufacture, textile resizing and detergent
formulation, are now traded as commodity products on the world's markets.
Although the cost of enzymes for use at the research scale is often very
high, where there is a clear large-scale need for an enzyme its relative
cost reduces dramatically with increased production. Relatively few enzymes, notably those in detergents, meat tenderisers and garden composting agents, are sold directly to the public. Most are used by industry to produce improved or novel products, to bypass long and involved chemical synthetic pathways or for use in the separation and purification of isomeric mixtures. Many of the most useful, but least-understood, uses of free enzymes are in the food industry. Here they are used, together with endogenous enzymes, to produce or process foodstuffs, which are only rarely substantially refined. Their action, however apparently straightforward, is complicated due to the effect that small amounts of by-products or associated reaction products have on such subjective effects as taste, smell, colour and texture.
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| Alcohol & Starch | Baking | Brewing | Cheese (Flavour) | Coffee & Tea | Dietetics | Egg | Fruit & Vegetable | Juice & Wine | Proteins |
