Food Standard Regulators Turn Up Heat on Acrylamide Threat

Bread tests using this acrylamide-preventing baker’s yeast found greatly reduced levels of asparagine in dough, and this correlated with a proportional reduction in acrylamide in bread and toast without changes to industrial baking process or length of cooking time. This yeast solves the acrylamide challenge in baking and may diminish the problem in a wide variety of other foods as well.

The company is now working with many global-scale and regional food manufacturers in various affected sectors to run collaborative testing on Acryleast based on industry manufacturing protocols.

“We’re always mindful that it’s a privilege and a responsibility to be working with large food suppliers and producers in dealing with an undesirable food contaminant that has caught their attention as well as that of the consuming public,” said Howard Louie, chief business development officer of Functional Technologies. “Rigorous testing of our acrylamide-preventing yeasts under a variety of industrial food manufacturing conditions with many partners has delivered exceptional results in many different food products and sectors. Testing in new products and sectors is always being initiated.”

Baked Goods and Bread Testing

Despite their lower acrylamide content, bread, baked products, and cereal-based products are a concern to regulators due to the large amounts of baked goods consumed by the public. Studies have shown that toasting bread can increase acrylamide levels by up to 10 times, increasing the health threat from bread. In the core application of industrial baking, this acrylamide-preventing baker’s yeast can easily and seamlessly replace traditional yeast used in bread manufacturing worldwide, inhibiting the formation of acrylamide in bread and crackers. Industrial testing shows consistent and reliable acrylamide reductions of more than 90% for crackers.

Testing has also found the yeast effective in toast prepared from “no-time” dough and “sponge-and-dough” breads, including wheat flour, grain flour, whole meal, and low-/high-sugar types (Fig. 1). It’s important to note that using this yeast requires no changes in the industrial baking process and results in no discernible difference in product taste or integrity. The accelerated asparagine- consuming trait can be easily transferred to any baker’s yeast strain used commercially today. The widespread adoption of this yeast technology in global markets would immediately eliminate the threat of acrylamide contamination in all breads and baked goods.

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Figure 1. Acrylamide levels in toast samples.

Yeast-Using Extruded Products

Testing with collaborating industry partners has occurred in the area of extruded food intermediaries or pellets (potato, corn, wheat, or grain starches) that are further processed into final food products such as cereals, chips, baby foods, crackers, and other snacks. These tests have been carried out under simulated commercial conditions, industrial protocols, and protocols supplied by partners. Acryleast was mixed into the dry materials along with water, and asparagine degradation was found to begin rapidly upon first contact. Reductions were significant, with asparagine reduced to non-detectable levels within 60 minutes (Fig. 2).

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Figure 2. Extrusion products (normally yeast-using)

Non-Yeast Extruded Food Products

Testing has been conducted in end-user, dough-like applications prepared under simulated commercial conditions, with the end product being extruded food pellets for use in making final starch food products. In these tests, in which baker’s yeasts are not usually employed, Acryleast rapidly and dramatically reduced asparagine levels in fewer than 30 minutes, even at low doses and under various processing conditions (Fig. 3). Louie said he believes the company can optimize the processing parameters even further.

“Yeast is a very robust organism and well-established traditional food processing agent. Our yeast has been extremely efficient at consuming asparagine in every food matrix challenge put before us by our collaboration partners,” he noted.