Can enzymes ever be used as food ingredients?

One of the main challenges faced by Australia’s food legislators is the need to balance measures to ensure consumer safety against the need not to discourage the development of new and innovative products and ingredients. When designing new products that make use of ingredients with claimed technological or practical advantages, food producers should be aware of the potential regulatory frameworks that could influence how these substances are used. This article delves into how innovative ingredients may be regulated in food, using enzymes as an example, and outlines some of the issues that food companies should be aware of when designing new products. When will an enzyme be a food processing aid, or a food additive, or a food ingredient?