The yeast may reduce the amount of acrylamide in the final consumer product by up to 90%, according to the company.
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Renaissance BioScience Corp. reports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has “no questions” in regards to the company’s Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status for its non-bioengineered/non-G.M.O., acrylamide-reducing baker’s yeast strain.
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| John Husnik, c.e.o. of Renaissance BioScience |
“The acceptance of our acrylamide-reducing yeast as GRAS by the U.S. F.D.A. is a significant step forward in the commercialization and marketing of the AR yeast for a wide variety of food and beverage sectors,” said John Husnik, chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Renaissance BioScience.
The National Toxicology Program characterizes acrylamide as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The F.D.A. in March issued final guidance to the food industry on ways to reduce acrylamide levels. A chemical, acrylamide may form during high-temperature cooking such as frying, roasting and baking.
“In foods that already contain yeast we believe our AR yeast can quickly and seamlessly replace the use of conventional baker’s yeast, with minimal or no change to the food production process, thereby reducing the amount of acrylamide in the final consumer product by up to 90%,” Dr. Husnik said. “For foods that do not traditionally contain yeast it is also possible to significantly reduce acrylamide levels using our AR yeast by making reasonable process alterations, as our laboratory results have shown.”
