Canadian applied life sciences company Renaissance Ingredients has conducted an in-house, laboratory-scale analysis to know the effectiveness of its acrylamide-reducing (AR) baker yeast on bread and baked goods. The company’s analysis found that the non-GMO AR baker’s yeast strains reduced acrylamide by up to 95% in an array of food products.
The acrylamide reduction was achieved by degrading the precursor compound asparagine. The test was conducted on both white and whole wheat bread and toast.
The tests on these foods on which the AR baker's yeast was used, delivered an average reduction in acrylamide of 80% in comparison with the conventional baker's yeast, the company claimed.
The acrylamide reduction was observed in both stages of pre-toasting and post-toasting of the breads. The break making process did not undergo any changes in order to achieve these reductions.
Renaissance Ingredients president Dr. Matthew Dahabieh said: "We are very pleased with the performance of our AR yeast in bread and toast. These results confirm the efficacy, simplicity and seamlessness of using our AR yeast in all varieties of baked goods.
"We are also exceptionally pleased with the consistency exhibited by our AR yeast in reducing acrylamide across all levels of toasting. In most cases, the acrylamide content of toasted bread made with our AR yeast is less than that of untoasted bread made with conventional baker's yeast. Essentially, our AR yeast eliminates the acrylamide potential of toasting conventional bread."
Cooking at high temperatures can increase the presence of acrylamide in food significantly. However, when the bread making process was done by adding the AR yeast dark toast made from the white and whole wheat bread contained lower levels of acrylamide, after toasting.
During tests conducted by the company, the reduction was observed in three degrees of toasting namely light, medium and high, which are claimed to increase the acrylamide content by up to 10 times as compared to the untoasted bread.
White bread baked with conventional yeast contained 30 parts per billion (ppb) of acrylamide, while dark toast made from the same bread increased the acrylamide content by 6.5 times to 195 ppb.
In whole wheat bread, the test results showed that dark toast contained higher acrylamide levels of 8.9 times (34 ppb in bread increases to 301 ppb in dark toast). But when AR yeast was added to the process, dark toast made from the white and whole wheat bread (that contained just 5 ppb prior to toasting) contained only 36 and 40 ppb of acrylamide, respectively, after toasting.
The AR yeast strains are baker's yeast which has a natural ability to consume amino acid asparagines, a precursor to acrylamide. AR yeast can be used in the conventional baked good processing without affecting the procedure. AR yeast also can be used in foods in which yeast is not a regular ingredient.
Renaissance Ingredients has studied the feasibility of using AR yeast in unique ways for foods containing yeast extract, chemically leavened foods, or foods exposed to soaking steps during processing. These foods include potato-based products such as potato chips and French fries, savory snack foods, cereal products and coffee.
