Commercially available salts thiamine chloride and thiamine nitrate are produced at scales of thousands of tons annually by chemistry-based manufacturing processes in Europe and Asia. These salts are supplied for formulations for supplementation of human diet and as feed additives for cattle, swine, poultry and fish.
Research for potential biotechnology-based production of thiamine has resulted in patent applications claiming fermentation using recombinant microorganisms modified to deregulate feedback inhibition and allow release of thiamine forms to the media as demonstrated at small scale.
Thiamine forms and their bio-precursors are produced at very large scale in biological matrices such as yeast, grains, plants and meats widely consumed as food and feed. Research into genetic modification of plants. has led to higher levels of thiamine in foodstuffs, such as rice. Use of thiamine forms and their bio-precursors by various means such as seed coating or soil and foliar fertilization to improve plant growth and properties are being investigated.