Wacker has revived its Fermopure brand name to include all of the amino acids that the group produces. L-cystine – the starting material for L-cysteine – is manufactured by fermentation at the company’s new site in León, Spain. The production site has been certified to both FSSC 22000 and ISO 9001 standards and thus satisfies all quality requirements, says Wacker. Due to the entirely plant-based and inorganic raw materials, Wacker’s cystine and cysteine are reportedly vegan and ideal for use in food and pharmaceutical products.

“With Fermopure, we offer safe ultrapure cystine and cysteine products made from purely plant-based raw materials,” says Dr. Stefan Neumann, Head of Bioprocessing at Wacker. 

Since September 2018, cystine production has been up and running at the modernized and technologically upgraded site in León. Wacker is the first company to manufacture cystine by fermentation – thanks to a patented biotech process, says Dr. Neumann. The advantage in this is that the raw materials are entirely plant-based and inorganic so that any potential contamination due to animal or human pathogens can be eliminated entirely. 

“Our production process yields products that are vegan, kosher and halal. This makes them ideal for numerous applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries,” explains Neumann. Wacker received the 2008 Environmental Award from the Federation of German Industries (BDI) for this process.

Thanks to their functional properties and purity levels, Wacker’s Fermopure products have a broad application range in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Thanks to their functional properties and purity levels, Wacker’s Fermopure products have a broad application range in the food and pharmaceutical industries. They find use in the manufacture of flavorings, as additives in baked good and as an essential component of baby and toddler food. 

Cystine and cysteine are also trendy ingredients in nutritional supplements for strengthening the skin, hair and nails. The pharmaceutical sector uses cysteine in expectorants or to produce insulin, for example. “In León, we are well-equipped to satisfy our customers’ growing demand for cysteine in the long-term and to advance other bioengineered products,” explains Neumann.

This fermentative production requires the aid of microorganisms and glucose from plant starch. These microorganisms are by nature able to synthesize cysteine. In the fermentation tank, they produce the amino acid in a continuous stream of glucose and inorganic trace elements. The microorganisms release cysteine directly into the surrounding culture medium in the fermenter, wher spontaneous oxidation takes place – two molecules come together to form the dimer cystine. This product can subsequently be reduced again to the monomeric cysteine by electrolysis. The latter is one of the 20 natural amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.