Vancouver, Canada — RenaissanceIngredients Inc. is pleased to release the results of an in-house,laboratory-scale analysis of the efficacy of its acrylamide-reducing(AR) baker’s yeast for applications in the global bread and baked goodsmarket. The company’s non-GMO AR baker’s yeast strains (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)have been found to reduce acrylamide by up to 95% in a variety of foodproducts by degrading the precursor compound asparagine.

Inthis test in both white and whole wheat bread and toast, the use of ARbaker’s yeast delivered an average reduction in acrylamide of 80%relative to conventional baker’s yeast. This reduction was observedin the bread prior to toasting, as well as across three degrees oftoasting (low, medium and high/dark). Importantly, no changes to thebread-making or baking processes other than the use of AR yeast wererequired in order to achieve these reductions.

“We are verypleased with the performance of our AR yeast in bread and toast. Theseresults confirm the efficacy, simplicity and seamlessness of usingour AR yeast in all varieties of baked goods,” said RenaissanceIngredients’ President, Dr. Matthew Dahabieh. “We are also exceptionallypleased with the consistency exhibited by our AR yeast in reducingacrylamide across all levels of toasting. In most cases, the acrylamidecontent of toasted bread made with our AR yeast is less than that ofuntoasted bread made with conventional baker’s yeast. Essentially, ourAR yeast eliminates the acrylamide potential of toastingconventional bread.”

Highly elevated acrylamide levels in toasted bread

Itis well known that cooking at high temperatures significantly increasesthe acrylamide content of food. For example, in Renaissance’s tests,white bread baked with conventional yeast contained 30 parts perbillion (ppb) of acrylamide, while dark toast made from the same breadincreased the acrylamide content by 6.5 times to 195 ppb. In thecase of whole wheat bread, dark toast had higher acrylamide levels of8.9 times (34 ppb in bread increases to 301 ppb in dark toast).However, when produced with AR yeast, dark toast made from the white andwhole wheat bread (that contained just 5 ppb prior to toasting)contained only 36 and65 ppb of acrylamide, respectively, after toasting.

“Ourstudies show that common restaurant and consumer cooking practices canresult in highly elevated levels of acrylamide in toasted bread.However, our data also show that AR yeast has the ability tomitigate this ‘acrylamide potential’ in baked goods without any changesto the cooking process. This greatly reduces the health risk thatacrylamide formed during cooking poses to end consumers,” addedDahabieh. “We are now looking to work with collaborative partners atthe pilot and industrial scale to confirm and refine the efficacy of ARyeast in these settings.”

AR yeast applications: baked goods, potato products, snack foods and coffee

RenaissanceIngredients’ AR yeast strains are traditional baker’s yeast with anaccelerated natural ability to consume the amino acid asparagine, theprecursor to acrylamide. In baked goods in which yeast has alwaysbeen used as an ingredient, AR yeast can seamlessly replace conventionalbaker’s yeast with no disruption to the baking process.Importantly, AR yeast also can be used in foods in which yeast is notnormally an ingredient. Renaissance Ingredients has conductednumerous successful studies on the feasibility of using AR yeast innovel ways for foods containing yeast extract, chemically leavenedfoods, or foods exposed to soaking steps during processing. These foodsinclude potato-based products such as potato chips and French fries,savory snack foods, cereal products and coffee.

“Our in-housestudies highlight the versatility and efficacy of our AR yeast inreducing acrylamide not only in baked goods and toast, but also inpotato products, snack foods, cereal products and coffee. We are nowlooking to demonstrate this efficacy in pilot-scale trials by workingclosely with additional interested industry partners,” addsDahabieh.

About acrylamide

Acrylamide isa World Health Organization Group IIA carcinogen that has been shown tobe mutagenic and neurotoxic in a variety of laboratory animal studies.In 2002, acrylamide was identified in a range of common foods,including bread, toast, potato chips, fries, cereals and coffee.Acrylamide is not added to food, but forms naturally from the aminoacid asparagine when foods are heated above 120 °C (e.g., during baking,roasting or frying). The European Food Safety Association (EFSA)recently announced its latest risk assessment on the continuingwidespread presence of acrylamide in various foods. This report isone of many indicating that acrylamide is a concern to health agenciesworldwide, including the U.S. FDA, Health Canada, and others.

About Renaissance BioScience Corp. and Renaissance Ingredients Inc.

RenaissanceBioScience Corp., based in Vancouver, Canada, is a privately heldapplied life sciences company that develops yeast-based platformtechnologies to solve industrial and health problems in the food andbeverage industries. Renaissance Ingredients Inc., a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Renaissance BioScience Corp., is responsible forcommercializing AR yeast for the global food manufacturing industry.

For more information please contact:

Dave Reichert
Vancouver, BC, Canada
+01 604 822-6499
info@renaissanceingredients.com
www.renaissanceingredients.com

 

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