Commodity enzymes

Biocatalysts Ltd. is an independent company that since 1980 has been devoted to the manufacture and sales enzymes. Since it is not part of a larger chemical, food ingredients or pharmaceutical company, instead of producing large volumes of commodity enzymes, it produces enzymes tailored to customer needs. Their services include working together with customers to industrialize their processes or to produce specific required enzymes. Usually, these customer sectors do not require single enzyme entities, but enzyme complexes where the ratios of each of the components are crucial to the efficacy of the whole enzyme-biocatalyst product and to the customer s process. Fermentation requirements for the manufacture of enzyme products are sub-contracted out. 

Polarimetry is a simple and accurate method for determining optically active compounds. A polarimeter is a low cost instrument readily available in many research laboratories. The detector can be integrated into an HPLC system if separation of substrates and products of reaction is required. Invertase ((3-D-fructofurano-side fructohydrolase EC 3.2.1.26), a commodity enzyme widely used in the food industry, can be conveniently assayed by polarimetry (Chen et al. 2000), since the specific optical rotation of the substrate (sucrose) differs from that of the products (fructose plus glucose). 

Enzyme Commercially Available Enzyme is Proprietary to the Vendor In this situation, the vendor becomes responsible for all aspects of enzyme manufacture and formulation. If the enzyme of interest is one that is already being manufactured at very large scales for other industries, as is the case for many commodity enzymes (e.g., for commercial detergents), these can often be pircchased at very lorv cost. Enzymes offered solely for biocatalysis applications are usually more expensive. The main issue in both cases is that there is usually only a single supplier for the enzyme. 

Contrary to the commodity chemical business, the key to win in the specialty products market does not lie in squeezing out profits by means of economies of scale or process optimization. Rather, it lies in the ability for fast new product launches in order to capture the largest market share as soon as possible. Since superior product quality and performance is what really differentiates one specialty product from another, the product properties need to be adjusted as required by business needs. For example, the ability to manipulate functional chemicals in detergent products such as enzymes and zeolites, as well as backbone chemicals like surfactants, is often the key to success for both the detergent manufacturers and chemical suppliers [3], This trend has created an urgent need for an efficient and effective product and process development for these products. 

Most commodity biochemicals are now made using enzymes produced by gene cloning. 

Some basic food analytical methods such as determination of °brix, pH, titratable acidity, total proteins and total lipids are basic to food analysis and grounded in procedures which have had wide-spread acceptance for a long time. Others such as analysis of cell-wall polysaccharides, analysis of aroma volatiles, and compressive measurement of solids and semi-solids, require use of advanced chemical and physical methods and sophisticated instrumentation. In organizing the Handbook of Food Analytical Chemistry we chose to categorize on a disciplinary rather than a commodity basis. Included are chapters on water, proteins, enzymes, lipids, carbohydrates, colors, flavors texture/ rheology and bioactive food components. We have made an effort to select methods that are applicable to all commodities. However, it is impossible to address the unique and special criteria required for analysis of all commodities and all processed forms. There are several professional and trade organizations which focus on their specific commodities, e.g., cereals, wines, lipids, fisheries, and meats. Their methods manuals and professional journals should be consulted, particularly for specialized, commodity-specific analyses. 

During the last twenty years, biochemical reactions performed by microorganisms or catalyzed by microbial enzymes have been extensively evaluated from the viewpoint of synthetic organic chemistry, and as a consequence they have been shown to have a high potential for both theoretical and practical applications in synthetic chemistry. Many attempts to utilize biological reactions for practical synthetic processes have been made - for example, for the preparation of pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, food additives, and commodity chemicals. Such synthetic technology is called microbial transformation, or alternatively, microbial conversion, biotransformation, bioconversion, or enzymation [1,2]. 

Lignocellulosic biomass is a valuable and plentiful feedstock commodity and its high cellulose and hemicellulose content (about 80% of total) provides considerable potential for inexpensive sugars production. However, enzymatic deconstruction of these polysaccharides remains a costly prospect. Strides in cellulase cost reduction have been made, yet further improvements are needed to reach the goal of 0.10/gal of EtOH expected to enable this new industry. Strategies to reach this goal will combine reduction in the cost to produce the needed enzymes as well as efforts to increase enzyme efficiency (specific activity). As this work proceeds, the more easily attained achievements will be made first, and thus the overall difficulty increases with time. 

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