Nutrition
APPLICATION OF ENZYMES IN NUTRITION: FOOD&FEED IS BOTH, “NUTRITIONAL VALUABLE” and “HIGH TECH“.
There is a broad scale of enzymes applied for improvement of nutritional properties reaching from simple modification of food physico-chemical parameters of nutritional value sometimes leading to totally new nutritional products but also modifications of economic value up to simple processing of nutrients.
A variety of enzymatic treatment in Food Processing and Feed Processing is performed in industrial scale applications of high market volumes which are listed in INDUSTRIAL PROCESSSING.
Natural occurring systems like the digestive tract of human beings as well as that of other living beings are for degradation and separation of nutritional substances of value and those which cannot be utilized. This systems are not optimized for functionality in utilization of a broad spectrum of nutrients, but specialized on certain nutritional habits and nutrients available in a certain habitat. This is more true for most animals than for humans since we are conditioned to have a broad spectrum of nutrients.
But the ease of digestion is a function of how nutrition is adapted to the optimum of the individual need of spezies, and more than that to the nutritional optimum of an individual, depending on the spectrum of enzymes available for digestion. This is of importance for a variety of enzymes which are used as digestives in two different functions, first the use as digestive aid in supporting the natural digestive processes for the improvement of personal wellness but second enzymes can also be utilized for the extension of nutritional efficiency and to exploit nutritional resources in nutrients which are under normal, natural conditions not available. Thus nutritional additives and supplements can be categorized as Digestive Aids and Nutritional- or Food and Feed Enhancers.
All nutritional products and goods today are tested on the level of primary products, as well as on the level of processed food for their nutritional value ingredients for vitamins minerals and antioxidants as well as for contaminants. There is an emerging field of analyses to insure quality control in the field of Nutritional Analytics which is summarizing Agro- Food and Feed Analytics by establishing chains of high quality testings of nutrients.
These testings are performed in routine controls as well as to fulfill regulatory requirements. Testing of genetically modified materials like GMO food is an other example of Nutritional Analytics.