Kyowa Hakko expects greater EU market penetration after EFSA approval of its l-valine additive

By Jane Byrne

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Amino acid

Kyowa Hakko expects greater EU market penetration after EFSA approval of its l-valine additive
A Japanese food and feed ingredients producer said EFSA approval of its amino acid, l-valine, should help accelerate growth in its European feed business.

Satoshi Nakagawa, who is in charge of regulatory affairs for food and feed ingredients at Kyowa Hakko's headquarters in Japan, told us the authorization from the Parma based feed and food risk assessor did not really come as a surprise,

“Our product is highly purified. It contains more than 98 % L-valine,”​ she said.

L-valine is an essential proteogenic amino acid belonging, along with leucine and isoleucine, to the group of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs).

In European vegetable feed formulas, l-valine is reported to be the fifth most limiting amino acid after l-tryptophan in pigs for fattening and fourth after l-threonine in chickens for fattening.

Kyowa Hakko’s product had not been previously authorized as a feed additive in the EU. The company had sought approval for used in feed for all animal species.

The EU Commission asked EFSA’s Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) to deliver a scientific opinion​ on the company's l-valine ingredient, produced by fermentation using a modified strain of Escherichia coli​ (NITE SD 00066).

Non-ruminant efficacy

The Panel concluded that the company’s l-valine is considered to be an efficacious source of the amino acid l-valine for all non-ruminant species.

Efficacy studies, notes the EFSA opinion, are not required for amino acids that occur naturally in plant and animal proteins. “The nutritional role of the amino acid L-valine is well established in the scientific literature.”

Encapsulation recommendations

The EFSA experts said supplementary free amino acid valine is degraded by ruminal microorganisms if it is not given in a protected form.

“In ruminants, the amino acid valine has been implicated as being present at lower than optimum levels in microbial protein leaving the rumen (O’Connor et al., 1993; Schwab et al., 2005).  Thus, when requirements for more limiting essential amino acids, usually L-methionine, L-lysine and L-histidine, have been met, L-valine supplementation could be beneficial.

Free L-valine is rapidly degraded by ruminal microbiota, with an estimated half-life in the rumen of 2.1 hours (Chalupa, 1976). Broderick and Balthrop (1979) found that 45 % of free L-valine added to ruminal digesta in vitro remained after 3 hours.

Accordingly, only small amounts of dietary L-valine provided to ruminants would be expected to reach the abomasum intact and be absorbed.

Therefore, measures such as encapsulation would ensure a more efficient delivery of L-valine beyond the rumen,” ​found the FEEDAP Panel.

The opinion can be read here​.

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