Kerry and Renaissance BioScience commercialize acrylamide-reducing yeast enzyme ingredient

06 Dec 2018 --- Taste & Nutrition company Kerry has signed a licensing agreement with Renaissance BioScience Corp to supply the latter’s Acryleast, a non-GMO acrylamide-reducing yeast enzyme, to food and beverage manufacturers, expected to commence in the first quarter of 2019.

Acryleast is a natural, non-GMO yeast enzyme that reduces acrylamide by up to 90 percent in a range of food and beverage products, including biscuits, crackers, French fries, potato crisps, coffee, infant food and more. This clean label and versatile solution is touted as having no or minimal changes to manufacturing processes and no impact on flavor, aroma and texture.

This license agreement is quite timely given new EU acrylamide regulations, which came into effect in April 2018, marking the beginning of the law which limits the amount of acrylamide allowed in packaged foods and forces manufacturers to closely examine and reduce acrylamide levels in products.

Mike Woulfe, VP Business Development Enzymes, at Kerry comments: “We are delighted to announce Kerry’s partnership with Renaissance, an innovative life science company. Their non-GMO approach to acrylamide reduction fits very well with our clean-label strategy. We look forward to bringing this effective solution for acrylamide reduction of up to 90 percent, to food producers around the globe.”

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Woulfe says: “Acrylamide management is becoming a big concern for the industry. While it is a natural by-product of cooking starch-rich food at high temperatures, there is a growing body of evidence showing that it is a potential carcinogen. As a result, governments all over the world are starting to pay attention and implement new regulations, which limit and place warning signs of food containing high amounts of acrylamide. This means that food companies are now faced with the challenge of reducing acrylamide, while at the same time, delivering the food that their consumers know and love, with no impact to taste and texture. It is not an easy challenge.” 

“Initially, we have focused our application work for Acryleast in the categories of baked goods, snacks and processed potatoes. However, we hope to broaden this further as the market for non-GMO acrylamide reduction solutions starts to grow,” he notes.

“Acryleast is effective at low doses and is an extremely versatile ingredient. We have demonstrated its effectiveness across multiple food applications, with repeated results show a reduction in acrylamide levels,” he continues. “It is a clean label solution for food producers and its use requires no or minimal changes to manufacturing processes. Our tests have also demonstrated that Acryleast has no impact on flavor, aroma and texture.”

“At Kerry, we continue to invest significantly in our R&D strategies and this involves advancing our own in-house capabilities as well as advancing external partnerships with innovative smaller organizations. We are delighted to announce our most recent partnership, with Renaissance, an innovative life science company,” Woulfe notes.

Dr. Cormac O’Cleirigh, Chief Business Development Officer at Renaissance BioScience Corp also notes: “Kerry is a world leader in the food and beverage industry and is an ideal partner for us to globalize Acryleast, our non-GMO acrylamide-reducing yeast enzyme. As anticipated, there has been very high interest from food manufacturers globally for Acryleast, given changing regulations and consumer pressure. We look forward to working with Kerry and leveraging their extensive global footprint to bring Acryleast to even more customers.”

By Elizabeth Green