What is a Processing Aid?

Processing aid shall mean any substance which:

(i) is not consumed as food by itself;

(ii) is intentionally used in the processing of raw materials, foods or their ingredients, to fulfill a certain technological purpose during treatment or processing; and

(iii) may result in the unintentional but technically unavoidable presence in the final product of residues of the substance or its derivatives. They do not present any health risk and do not have any technological effect on the final product.

Transglutaminase enzyme is considered a processing aid, as reported and explained in some examples of its applications:

TG enzyme in uncooked meat products/meat preparations: the enzyme is entrapped in the protein/food matrix and, due to the depletion of the substrate around the entrapped enzyme, TG is not functional.

Enzyme TG in cooked meat products: the enzyme can be used to improve the texture and consistency of cooked meat products. Before cooking, TG catalyzes the formation of intermolecular linkages between glutamine and lysine residues in the proteins of the raw meat, thus strengthening the protein network structure. At the end of the process the enzyme is destroyed by a heat treatment step.

For more information about transglutaminase and our products, please do not hesitate to contact our team at sales@aceingredients.com

Liquid nitrogen used as a processing aid in ice cream production