Across the market, one very often encounters a mixture of different units because many manufacturers simply adopt the figures provided by raw material suppliers in the form in which they receive them. These “manufacturers” frequently do not have their own laboratory infrastructure for the independent determination, definition, and confirmation of enzymatic activity in the finished product. The result is often poor comparability between products, sometimes misleading interpretations of quality, and, in practice, real difficulty in proving that the values declared on product labels are actually met.
At Wald Biotech, we do not treat enzymatic activity as a marketing figure. We regard it as a key biochemical parameter that must be precisely defined, laboratory verified, and confirmed for each individual enzyme — and for every batch. This is one of the fundamental differences between the routine declaration of enzyme raw materials and a truly professionally controlled finished product.
Why we specify activity in FIP units
For meaningful comparison, enzymatic activity should be measured and stated in FIP units. FIP (Fédération Internationale Pharmaceutique) units, adopted by the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.), quantify protease activity on a standardized casein substrate under defined pH and temperature. That makes results comparable across batches and manufacturers.
Other unit systems (e.g., GDU, USP, PU) are not harmonized and can vary by method and lab, which complicates international comparison. Using FIP units is key to clarity and transparency — especially for trypsin and chymotrypsin.
In the European Union, when declaring proteolytic enzymes — especially trypsin and chymotrypsin — the use of FIP units is expected. For this reason, European legislation and food-supplement notification systems (e.g., in Germany, Italy, Austria) prefer or explicitly require the declaration of enzymatic activity in FIP units, especially for animal-derived enzymes.
Activity, price, and quality category
Trypsin and chymotrypsin, as highly specific and technologically demanding animal enzymes, are significantly more expensive than common plant proteolytic enzymes (bromelain, papain) or bacterial enzymes (e.g., serratiopeptidase). Products that contain high doses of these enzymes with verified high enzymatic activity in FIP units naturally fall into a higher price and quality category. In contrast, preparations based solely on bromelain or papain, or those containing low-activity animal enzymes, may be more affordable but might not offer comparable performance.
