Demand for food enzymes increases amid cost crisis

The Freedonia Group's analysis of the enzymes market, called Enzyme and published this month, found the demand for enzymes on the whole will increase in demand by 6 percent between 2007 and 2012. The report said, however, that the US demand for enzymes for use in food and beverage processing is predicted to demonstrate a slower growth rate at 4.1 percent, to reach $275m by 2012. The company said the market was not reaching its full growth potential because of the practicalities involved in developing compatible processing systems, says a new report. "Between rapidly rising energy costs and rising raw food prices, one could argue that any place where enzymes help reduce costs, speed processing times, and optimize production and yield, they should be in high demand right now," Ned Zimmerman, an analyst from Freedonia, told FoodNavigator-USA.com. "In practical times it does not work out this way, as it can take time to implement new process systems that can make use of the enzymes." Areas of growth Enzymes will continue to play an important role in cheese and beer production, as these are areas in need of new, more efficient enzymes. However, demand for food enzymes will increase fastest in the bakery sector and areas such as oilseed processing. The bakery sector is also experiencing the most launches of innovative enzyme products. Zimmerman drew attention to recent innovation introduced by DSM and Novozymes, who have both developed asparaginase enzymes to deal with the potential threat of acrylamide forming in certain baked goods. Novozymes launched an asparaginase from Aspergillus oryzae last September, while DSM's came from a different strain, Aspergillus niger . The two came to market in the same week, marking fierce competition between the two companies. Zimmerman said: "This continues the long-standing development trend that has helped drive strong growth in bakery enzyme demand." The American regulatory system is generally favorable to new innovation, according to Freedonia. Enzymes generally only require GRAS (generally recognised as safe) status from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which it said is not generally too difficult to get as most food and beverage enzymes are variants of naturally occurring enzymes. "Consequently, enzyme manufacturers can typically bring products to market in a fairly quick time-frame, which is always good from a business standpoint," added Zimmerman. Leading producers Novozymes is the leading global enzyme manufacturer, and claims to hold 45 percent of the industrial enzymes market. When considering speciality and industrial enzymes, Novozymes is still the dominant company, but controls a market share of just below 20 percent. Other important food enzyme companies in the US include AB Enzymes, Amano Enzyme, Cargill, Chr Hansen, Danisco and DSM.

Demand for food enzymes increases amid cost crisis

The enzymes market is experiencing some increased popularity among manufacturers because of their desired functionality and ability to help save costs, says a new report.

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