Aspartic acid derives its vegan and vegetarian status from fumaric acid, ammonia.
| Vegan? Yes | Vegetarian? Yes |
Classifications are made based on the available commercial supply of the ingredient, and are made based on the criteria on our classifications page.
Commercially available aspartic acid is vegan and vegetarian.
Aspartic acid is an amino acid found in animals and plants. It exists in left and right handed forms: l-aspartic acid and d-aspartic acid. Interestingly, it is one of only two amino acids produced by animals in the right handed form. The primary commercial method for the production of l-aspartic acid uses fumaric acid in the presence of ammonia in the presence of the l-aspartase enzyme. One other commercial method relies on fermentation of a sugar-free medium with fumaric acid as the sole carbon source, using the bacteria E. coli and Cornybacterium glutamacium.
Sources
- Appleton, H., & Rosentrater, K. A. (2021). Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This): A Review and Perspectives on Aspartic Acid Production. Fermentation, 7(2), 49.
https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation7020049 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartic_acid
- , kumar, P. P., nika, B. M., & mangala, D. S. (2017). Production of Aspartic Acid-A Short Review. International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology, 45(6), 254–257.
https://doi.org/10.14445/22315381/ijett-v45p253 - https://www.veganpeace.com/ingredients/ingredients.htm