(Food-Beverage-News.Com, December 22, 2016 ) Food enzymes are biocatalysts, sourced from plants, animals or micro-organisms used to alter the speed of biochemical reactions in foods and beverages. Food enzymes are generally used as food additives to enhance digestibility, texture and shelf life of food and beverages. It has wide application in meat processing, dairy industries, alcoholic beverages, and manufacturing of pre-digested foods. Food enzymes are also used as natural fermentation agent (breaking of large sized molecule of carbohydrates fats and proteins) in various amino-acids and specialty foods.
On the basis of chemical properties, the food enzymes are broadly categorized under four categories namely, carbohydrase (such as amylase, cellulose, pectinase, and lactase), protease, lipase and others. On the basis of end user application, food enzymes market can be broadly classified as, meat, beverages, dairy, bakery and others. Furthermore, on the basis of sources, the market can be categorized under micro-organisms, plants and animals.
North America is the largest market for food enzymes closely followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Food enzymes market in Asia Pacific has been witnessing healthy growth rate from past few years and is expected to grow even at higher rate in upcoming years. Westernization and globalization in developing countries of Asia Pacific are leading to change in food habit among consumers, such as preference towards bakery, confectionaries, specialty food and process food which in turn is helping the food enzymes market in this region. Increasing demand of processed food products and consumers preference regarding exotic and novel flavors in the developed countries of North America and Europe is keeping a steady growth in the food enzymes market in these regions. The increased demand of process food, confectionary and bakery in developing countries such as South Africa and Brazil is showing promising growth for food enzymes market in rest of the world (RoW) region.
Ever-increasing population and demand for processed foods coupled with growing awareness about healthy food and beverages products is propelling growth in food industry, which in-turns driving the growth of the global food enzymes market. Moreover, technical innovations in enzymatic food processing and rising application of food enzymes in variety of new food products are also driving the overall market.
The health related side effect associated with certain enzymes is acting as a major challenge for the overall growth of the food enzymes market. The European Union recently imposed a regulation regarding health risks associated enzymes in food industry and considered a need of defined set of guidelines to regulate the market.
The major companies operating in global food enzymes market include AB Enzymes GMBH, Advanced Enzymes Technologies Limited, AUM Enzymes, Dyadic International Inc., E.I. DUPONT DE Nemours & Company, Jiangsu Boli Bioproducts Co. Ltd, Novozymes A/S, Sunson Industry Group Company Limited, Nagase Chemtex Corporation, and Puratos Group NV.
