Amino Acid Supplements Made From Bird Feathers
November 17, 2009
By: Scott Welch
The most disgusting thing I’ve learned about supplements in a while took place at this year’s SupplySide West conference. The topic of discussion was “how amino acids were made”. Now I’ve always believed that manufacturers just took protein powder, hydrolyzed it and then added extra enzymes to cleave the residue into free-form amino acids. Well I stopped by the AJINOMOTO booth (who are based in Japan and are one of the largest supplier of amino acids in the world), and spoke with sales manager Mike Tesch who told me something shocking! He said that many chinese manufacturing companies make amino acids by taking human hair and bird feathers (yes, bird feathers) and treat them with an acid that breaks them down into amino acids! Talk about YUUUUK! What’s worse is that he said a great number of amino acid supplements are made by this method.
SCOTT WELCH CONTACT INFO:
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3 Responses to “Amino Acid Supplements Made From Bird Feathers”
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“What’s worse is that he said a great number of amino acid supplements are made by this method.”
Only cystine.
Did Ajinomoto happent to reveal the raw material source they use for the synthesis of their amino acids?
Birds manufacture melanins from amino acids. Melanins also give feathers strength and resistance to the elements. I’m not sure about making aminos from them though.