Amino acids

Description

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. In nutritional proteins, approximately 22 various amino acids may be found. Of these, eight are "essential", i.e., cannot be manufactured in the body and therefore must be consumed as part of the nourishment.

Application

In addition to applications in diet nutrition and in dietary supplements, amino acids primarly are applied as:

• flavour enhancers: some amino acids are involved in the production and perception of taste but have no taste of their own. These acids therefore are approved as "taste-influencing agents" for foodstuffs.
• baking agent additive: cysteine
• feed additives: most feeds used in animal husbandry do not contain all necessary (essential) amino acids. The lacking amino acids are produced on an industrial scale and are added to the feed. These acids include lysine, tryptophan, methionine and threonine.

Gene technology

• Production methods with genetically modified microorganisms are known for a range of amino acids. However, little information is accessible as a rule on the subject of whether and to what degree these production methods are commercially employed. Market leaders in amino acids are Japanese firms. The following amino acids can be produced with the aid of gene technology: lysins, threonine, phenylalanine, methionine, tryptophan, arginine, leucine, glutamic acid and cysteine.
• The culture medium on which the microorganisms grow may contain raw materials from genetically modified plants (e.g. soybeans, rapeseed).
• Individual amino acids may be won directly from plant proteins through enzymatic modification. It is possible that these plant proteins may have been derived from genetically modified plants such as soybeans. The applied enzymes may be manufactured with the aid of genetically modified organisms.

Food labelling: since they are not legally classified as ingredients or as additives, most amino acids are not included on the list of ingredients.

For an amino acid that must be declared on the list of ingredients, labelling fundamentally is required if the acid in question has been produced from genetically modified plants.

Amino acids that have been produced with the aid of genetically modified organisms in closed systems do not require labelling, provided that the amino acid in question has been purified and contains no microorganisms.

Feed labelling: as components of feed, amino acids are subject to labelling. Fundamentally, the same regulations apply as are the case with food.