Large-scale high-performance liquid chromatography of enzymes for food applications

Processes for the production of food-grade enzymes must be cost-effective. Fortunately, most enzymes manufactured for food applications are not required to be highly purified. However, enzymes are considered additives and thus the concentration of DNA and other extraneous materials must be within FDA guidelines. Developing efficient, low-cost, large-scale HPLC methods for food applications is becoming more feasible with the introduction of new HPLC tools and technologies. Enzymes can be successfully separated from cell extracts by size-exclusion and ion-exchange HPLC using optimal gradient elution programs for the latter. Large-scale HPLC methods developed for the purification of some significant food enzymes are discussed in this paper.