Institute of Food Technology 2024 convention and Expo – “fireside chat”
Economic Adulteration of Bromelain: A discussion on food safety and food fraud issues
Bromelain has been in use in the USA since the late 1960’s. EDC has been involved with Bromelain since that time. It is used in food processing, nutraceuticals, and pharma applications. Bromelain activity is measured by multiple methods including the CDU, GDU, FIP, and FCC PU. Of them, the GDU is the least reliable.
A worldwide shortage of Bromelain started during the Covid Pandemic. During this time, unscrupulous companies expanded their promotion and sales of bromelain that did not meet the activity requirements but, was Bromelain. The GDU was “reported” as expected but other assay methods showed the lower than expected activity. As the shortage continued, substitution of non-bromelain products began. We are now at the point that the GDU method has been successfully faked to give the correct results but SDS-PAGE techniques prove there is no bromelain.
The discussion will be a short review of the assay issues and how it affects both the food industry and the supplement industry. We will also discuss what steps the industry can take to prevent the adulterated bromelain from being used in their products.
The “Fireside Chat” information is also available in print on the Enzyme Development Corporation website , https://www.enzymedevelopment.com/enzymes/bromelain-2/