ZEIN PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONS

Zein is a bio-polymer that has traditional and emerging uses in the food pharmaceutical and industrial sectors of the economy.

Zein is presently used to produce films for coating candy such as jelly beans and chocolate.  It is used to mask flavors and to provide moisture resistance to medicine tablets.  It can be used in pharmaceuticals to produce time release medicine or to provide wound dressings and scaffolds to grow skin grafts.  It can extend the shelf life of dried fruits, nuts and vegetables, as well as mushrooms and pasta.  It has been used in fortified rice for encapsulating minerals and vitamins and it has the ability to encapsulate flavors or fragrances for applications such as chewing gum and personal health care products.  It has also been used to replace wheat gluten in bakery products.  Generally, wherever shellac is used, zein can replace it.  Its ability to provide moisture barriers, grease resistance, antimicrobial activity and is plant based makes zein a much sought after ingredient.

Zein is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the USFDA (March, 1985). Evidence of its safety is the fact that it has been used by health care professionals to test the skin compatibility of cosmetics. Zein is now in the USP XXIV NF XIX. 

The addressable market size for zein is enormous by virtue of the breadth and scale of its applications.

Sectors utilizing zein currently are referenced below: