Collagen waste as secondary industrial raw material

Abstract

Use of collagen in food production is limited by its low nutritive value and deficient essential amino acids. Irrespective of gelatine and glue manufactured by boiling refined native collagen, industrial processing of collagen is connected with production of a considerable amount of difficultly utilizable protein waste. In the phase of refining collagen raw material, hydrolysates of keratin and accompanying proteins (albumins, globulins) that are isolated with ease go away; their following usage comes up against similar problems as with keratin. Use of collagen waste as of secondary industrial raw material is usually complicated by an excessive density of irreversible crosslinks introduced for stabilizing against chemical and microbial effects. The first stage in processing such waste is hydrolysis that is partially alkaline, acid, but above all enzymatic, and interesting for its low energy demands. Obtained collagen hydrolysates behave like gelatine, however, with a view to their molecular weight bei