Abstract:

Called “the building blocks of life”, amino acids have long played and important role in human nutrition and health maintenance. The amino acids have a biological activity and are components in foods and food additives. The food additives contains a different variety of essential and non-essential amino acids that play a critical role in metabolizing nutrients, building muscle tissue, and protecting the body against disease. The fact that one food additive  has a plant or animal origin, does not make it safe.Mostly there is no regulatory analytical control, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the input amino acids in food additives, leading to compromise of quality and in some cases to adverse risk. This paper reviews the most used manufacturing methods for the production of some amino acids and variety of analytical methods for their characterization.