Dive Brief
- Renaissance BioScience Corp., a global yeast company based in Vancouver, Canada, recently announced the FDA had "no questions" in regard to the company's GRAS notice for its non-GMO acrylamide reducing (AR) baker's yeast strain.
- The yeast can be used in a wide variety of food and beverage sectors to reduce acrylamide, such as those that don't traditionally use yeast, as well as a replacement for conventional baker's yeast in products that contain yeast, according to a statement.
- The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Renaissance Ingredients Inc., is researching partnerships to develop large-scale commercial availability of the ingredient for food manufacturers.
Dive Insight
"Our goal was to replace conventional baker's yeast in a 1:1 way," Dr. Matthew Dahabieh, president, Renaissance Ingredients, told Food Dive. Tests were conducted on breads, pretzels, potato-based snack foods and products, as well as coffee. "Potatoes are one of the most heavily affected foods by acrylamide because they contain high amounts of sugar and asparagine, which are the two precursors to acrylamide," Dahabieh said.
Renaissance's testing of the AR yeast has been on the laboratory scale to this point, Dahabieh said. The company is working with commercialization partners to learn how the yeast performs at other scales.
The AR yeast can replace conventional baker's yeast with minimal or no change to the food production process, reducing the amount of acrylamide in the final consumer product by up to 90%, according to a statement.
And for products that do not contain yeast, by making reasonable process alterations, AR yeast can also significantly reduce acrylamide levels.
The FDA recently released final guidelines for reducing acrylamide in foods. The guidance is geared toward raw materials, processing practices, and ingredients that relate to potato-based foods, cereal-based foods, and coffee, according to a news release.
Ingredient manufacturers see opportunities in regard to finding solutions to reduce acrylamides. During 2002-2012, despite the availability of tools to reduce acrylamide across a broad range of food categories in a wide range of geographical regions, there weren't meaningful reductions.