GMO-free against acrylamide

+R enaissance BioScience Corp. based on Vancouver, Canada, has developed a yeast that is able to lower the resulting level of acrylamide contamination in finished baked products. Applications for the yeast up to now have been mainly in the manufacture of crackers, crispbread and biscuits –with favorable results, according to the inventors and marketers.

The Canadians have patented the yeast, which they call “Acryleast”, worldwide and have registered it with the Canadian health authorities as a “novel food”. The USA Food and Drug Administration classified the yeast as “GRAS” (Generally Recognized As Safe), i.e. basically safe.

In scientific terms, although Acryleast is a completely “ordinary” yeast, it does not develop the same leavening power as the baker’s yeasts that are usual nowadays. Therefore normal baker’s yeast must be used for baked products that must show corresponding development. In return, however, Acryleast, which is produced without any genetic engineering, contains a high level of the enzyme asparaginase, which can split the amino-acid asparagine – an acrylamide precursor – and render it harmless.

The ability to do this is certainly also present in traditional baker’s yeast, but this tends to begin by using other amino-acids as a nitrogen source before attacking asparagine. By breeding and selection, Renaissance BioScience redirected the yeast’s preference towards chewing up asparagine first.

In the past, anyone who wanted to reduce the acrylamide content of his baked goods without making major changes in the recipe and process was compelled to add the enzyme asparaginase, and as a general rule that is produced by genetically modified microorganisms. On top of that, there are only a very few asparaginase suppliers in Europe, and their products are not exactly cheap. Thus Acryleast, with its GMO-freedom and in its price, represents an alternative to previous solutions.

Kerry, the Irish raw materials group, has now acquired extensive marketing rights for Europe. Excluded from this are the Scandinavian countries, the Baltic, Poland, the Czech

Republic and Slovakia – where the product is marketed by the Norwegian group Orkla, which also manufactures and markets bakery raw materials, among other things.

The list of bakery groups that do not come under Kerry’s and Orkla’s licenses, but have instead gone into business directly with Renaissance to enable them to drive forward other developments of their own, indicates the potential importance this GMO-free solution to the acrylamide contamination problem may have in the future. The list includes three heavyweights: the Swedish group Lantmännen-Unibake, a Europe-wide producer of breads, baguettes, rolls savory baked goods, croissants and cakes, Continental Bakeries in the Netherlands, which produces mainly cookies, crackers, honey cake, crispbread and zwieback, and the Barilla Group in Italy. Although the last of these is usually associated internationally with pasta, it definitely also maintains a range of baked products in Europe, for example under the Harry’s Toast-bread brand in France, bread and cookies under the Mulino Bianco brand in Italy, and crispbread throughout Europe under the name Wasa.

Mike Woulfe, Kerry’s Vice President Business Development Enzymes, says: “Initially, we focused our application work for Acryleast in the categories of baked goods, snacks and processed potatoes, however we will now broaden this further as the market for non-GMO acrylamide reduction solutions starts to grow in areas such as French fries, pretzels, breaded products, bread, coffee etc.”

When questioned about the advantages of the yeast compared to a purely enzyme solution, Woulfe points to the clean label and GMO-freedom of the production operation: “We passionately believe in a ‘from food, for food’ philosophy and are driven to find natural solutions to customers’ challenges. For us it was essential to launch a solution that was clean label and non-GMO so that both producers and consumers could trust that acrylamide was being reduced consistently, and in the right way. It is an extremely versatile solution for food producers and its use requires no or minimal changes to manufacturing processes.” +++