Enzymes add value for China’s meat processors 

According to Helen Hu Ying, Regional Marketing Manager for Novozymes’ Food & Nutrition division, slaughterhouses and meat processing plants in China have been using combinations of Novozymes Alcalase®, Novozymes Flavourzyme®, and Novozymes Protamex® for more than 10 years. Until recently, however, enzyme processing was generally limited to extracting meat flavor from meats for use in the production of meat-flavored snacks or packaged noodles.

“In the past few years, we’ve been showing our customers that enzyme processing can be used in a much wider range of applications to add value to coproducts that previously were often sold raw,” says Helen Hu Ying. “We’re offering a total solution that allows our customers to process and sell coproducts that they couldn’t take advantage of before. This is definitely a win-win solution for our customers. It not only opens up new sales opportunities for them, but is also an environmentally friendly, sustainable solution that significantly reduces energy use, waste production, and processing costs.”

Rapidly growing market
China’s 1.3 billion population is growing by 10 million people a year. With these numbers and a booming economy, China is one of the world’s largest consumers of food. Busy urban consumers want convenience, healthier choices, variety, and quality, which is creating new demands for processed foods. In fact, processed foods account for about 30% of total food consumption in China, and in the last three years they have amounted to approximately 40% of total food consumption in urban areas. In 2007, the food processing industry in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing alone was valued at around USD 172 billion. In addition to China, India, North America, and Latin America also represent big potential markets. In view of these numbers, it is clear that Novozymes holds the key to helping customers tap into valuable markets by replacing chemical processing with enzyme processing and increasing sustainability and food safety.

“The rapid growth of the processed meat industry is producing increasing amounts of coproducts such as trimmings, bones, bone cake, intestines, and greaves that formerly had little value,” says Helen Hu Ying. “Enzyme processing gives processed meats a more natural flavor and can help reduce salt and phosphates, which provides health benefits as well as a more attractive ingredient label for consumers. Our solution adds value that didn’t exist before. Or, where it did exist, it came with a high price tag in terms of the expense, energy use, and environmental impact of chemical processing.”

Novozymes can help, for example, with applications like meat protein extraction and bone  extraction as well as with extraction of GAGs (glycosaminoglycans) from cartilage, connective tissues, and collagen from hides for use in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products.

The preferable choice
There are many other processing applications beyond extraction. Enzymatic processing can, for instance, be used for such widely differing purposes as treating coproducts for use in pet foods and fertilizers and for converting fats to biodiesel. Moreover, enzymes can be used for pretreatment of coproducts that are sold to other companies, resulting in cleaner, higher-quality coproducts that are easier to handle in downstream processing. Equally important, enzymes make better use of raw materials, save water and energy, and almost always replace toxic chemicals.

Jin Lu, Customer Solutions for Food & Nutrition at Novozymes China, explains: “Some meat coproducts can be processed with chemicals, but this raises environmental problems and also increases costs. People are concerned about food safety, and enzymes can replace many food processing chemicals and make the production of foods a more natural process. There are also other important environmental and cost benefits to enzyme processing.”

In addition to chemicals being replaced by enzymatic processes, water consumption is reduced by the use of enzymes in some applications. Enzymes work at much lower temperatures than chemicals. This means that the amount of energy consumed in enzymatic processes is much smaller than when chemicals are used. The increased solubility and reduced water binding of the proteins and other ingredients in the wastewater from processing with enzymes make them much easier to collect and dispose of, which reduces the cost of facility cleanup for meat processors. From yield improvement to increased purity and elimination of waste, enzyme processing is clearly the preferable choice.

The Novozymes solution
The food processing market in China is growing exponentially. Today’s estimated 50,526 food processing ventures are projected to increase significantly in the future. “We have a longstanding and strong relationship with one of China’s top three meat processors,” says Helen Hu Ying. “We’ve helped them move from basic flavor extraction to a much broader application of enzyme processing to add more value to their meat coproducts. Novozymes provided in-depth technical support for this development process. “It’s fair to say that our customer has experienced significant growth in the past few years due to increased use of enzyme processing. Probably the best measure of the company’s success in this area is that they have very ambitious plans to increase coproduct sales. They’ve set up a new department dedicated to expanding coproduct sales in China and to Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia.”