# Food and feed additives

Emulsifiers, texturants, preservatives, sweeteners and feed additives such as amino acids, vitamins and enzymes; together a market of about $114 billion.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/

Specialty chemicals · Industrial & consumer specialties · No. 91

- Product family
- Feedstock: Crops and biomass
- not published as a family tonnage
- HS 210690
 Specialty chemicals · Industrial & consumer specialties · Foundation · Matter

Soft bread, stable yoghurt and fast-growing chickens all rely on small doses of additives worth $114 billion a year.

Chart: Illustration: Food and feed additives

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Most additives come from farm crops: maize gives starch and glucose for fermentation, with roughly 2 t of glucose making a tonne of lysine.

##### Three things to know

1. Convenience foods, dairy and sauces take about 25.6% of food additives, where starches and gums give texture.
2. Soybean oil, a raw material for lecithin and emulsifiers, nearly doubled from $912/t in February 2024 to $1,781/t in May 2026.
3. India banned colistin as a feed growth promoter in 2019, shifting demand to probiotics, acidifiers and enzymes.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Crops**Maize, soybeans, palm oil, sugar, seaweed
2. 2 **Processing**Milled into starch, crushed for lecithin
3. 3 **Fermentation**Lysine, citric acid, xanthan and enzymes
4. 4 **Blending**Premixes and specialty blends for customers
5. 5 **Food and feed**Bakery, drinks, dairy, poultry and pig feed

##### Go deeper pick a tab to open it in full

## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/correlation/index.md)
- [Production route](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/routes/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/production/index.md)
- [Feedstocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/feedstocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/movement/index.md)
- [Regulation](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/regulation/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/chemicals/food_additives/links/index.md)