Collagen for Daily Life

Gelatin and collagen peptides are widely used in many aspects of daily life, such as-for food products, health foods, pharmaceuticals, photographic film and printing paper and industrial fields. The sources of their raw materials-bovine/swine/fish-have also become far more diverse than just a generation ago, which enables Nippi to provide the right materials to meet the various and individual needs of the customer. Collagen, an animal protein, has long been safely used and taken for human consumption and Nippi will continue supplying products emphasizing safety first.

Ongoing Unique Progress

In 1940, we built a factory in ShizuokaPrefecture’s FujinomiyaCity so as to start manufacturing gelatin. Gelatin can be sorted roughly into alkali-gelatin and acid-gelatin by its treatment. The main difference between them lies in their isoelectric points: that of alkali-gelatin is around 5 and 7-9 for acid-gelatin. Their chemical properties also somewhat differ from each other, thus these two kinds of gelatin are used for different applications.

Nippi Gelatin is continuing to progress our quality and line-up. This includes readily-soluble gelatin that has excellent solubility, water-soluble gelatin that can be dissolved in cold water, and modified gelatin, which has special functions that can be used for pharmaceutical products.

Gelatin is mainly utilized for gelation, thickening and other such purposes and its applications are diverse. In the field of pharmaceuticals, for example, it is used in hard capsules, soft capsules, cataplasms and tablets; in the foods field, it is used in desert jellies, gummy candy, soft candy, health food capsules, and recently, microwave food; and in photography it is used in film and printing paper.

Collagen Peptides in Various Fields

In 1980, Nippi started manufacturing collagen hydrolysates and supplying them, under the name of "Nippi Peptide", mainly for pharmaceutical uses at first. To manufacture collagen peptides, gelatin made from collagen is further hydrolyzed with acid or enzymes to reduce its molecular weight. Accordingly, depending on their molecular weight, collagen peptides can be dissolved in water without gelling or thickening it.

Collagen peptides are used for drugs, food products-especially health foods-beverages, powdered mixes, and supplements. Industrially, moreover, they are used in metal refining, as enzyme stabilizers, and in various other ways of which the world is not generally aware.

Collagen Peptides, Further Evolving Towards Higher Quality

As the health food market expands, customer demands regarding health food are becoming increasingly sophisticated. With regard to beverages, for example, there is a growing demand for products that are colorless, odorless and tasteless.

At Nippi, to meet these demands, we are developing and providing products of a heretofore unattained quality.