Nutrition is responsible for most of the production costs and the formulation of balanced diets is of paramount importance to provide better productive performance and greater economic efficiency. Thus, the emergence of industrial amino acids allowed the elaboration of diets based on the ideal protein, providing an amino acid profile closer to the animals' needs, improving the use of nutrients and decreasing the excretion of dietary nitrogen in the environment. In view of the benefits presented using the ideal protein concept in the formulation of diets, this review aimed to show its application in poultry and swine nutrition