GRAS status signals rise in market share for natural food ingredient
food products has acquired GRAS status from the US Food and Drug
Administration signalling a growth in sales for its Japanese
manufacturer, the Chisso Corporation.
The €57 million Japanese firm said that the certification for its ingredient polylysine builds on its wide use in Japan and Korea and 'acknowledges the product as a world standard food additive.'
A natural material, polylysine is produced through microbial fermentation, just as the Japanese food products miso (soybean paste) and soy sauce, and combined to a straight chain of lysine, an essential amino acid.
"Polylysine has a function to prevent a microbe from proliferating by ionic adsorption in the microbe," said the 2000 strong Japanese firm, confirming the product's role in preserving food quality and safety.
On the market since 1989 the chemicals company added that it produces the ingredient industrially 'by making the most of our own biotechnology'.
Now it has gained the GRAS (Generally Recognised as Safe) status the company said it will start pushing sales of the polylysine ingredient on the west coast of the US, initially for use in rice products and later for meat and bread foodstuffs. A roll out onto the European market is expected shortly, said the Tokyo-based firm.
Food safety continues to be a driving issue in the worldwide food production industry, exacerbated by an increasingly complex food processing methods. Although the global incidence of foodborne disease is difficult to estimate, the World Health Organisation estimates that in industrialised countries, the percentage of people suffering from foodborne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30 per cent. In the US alone, for example, around 76 million cases of foodborne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalisations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.
