Feb 5, 2019Non-GMO acrylamide reducer introduced by Kerry, Renaissance BioScience
Acrylamide is fast becoming a big concern for the food industry, due to the growing body of evidence of its role as a potential carcinogen. Acryleast is a new fully non-GMO solution for acrylamide reduction brought to market by Kerry, the world leading Taste & Nutrition company, in partnership with Renaissance BioScience.
Acryleast is a clean-label, non-GMO yeast, rich in asparaginase enzyme, which has the ability to reduce acrylamide levels by up to 90 percent across a broad range of food and beverage products. That includes in biscuits, crackers, french fries, potato crisps, coffee and infant food.
Governments all over the world are starting to pay attention to acrylamide and are implementing new regulations, which include setting benchmark levels (European Union) and requiring warning signs placed on foods and beverages that contain acrylamide (California Proposition 65).
Matthew May, Kerry’s Bakery Lead for Europe and Russia said, “Across our entire taste and nutrition portfolio, we are keen to ensure that the functionality of our ingredients is reliable and consistent. On this basis, we repeatedly tested Acryleast’s effectiveness in reducing acrylamide levels across a range of biscuit and cracker applications. This involved testing in both our own laboratories and in scaled-up plant trials, where reductions of greater than 90 percent were achieved. Importantly, these trials also demonstrated no impact on taste or texture, confirming that Acryleast is a very effective and versatile solution for acrylamide reduction, that requires no or minimal changes to existing manufacturing processes.”
Mike Woulfe, VP Business Development Enzymes, at Kerry said, “For Kerry, 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. We are delighted to partner with Renaissance, an innovative life science company. Their non-GMO approach to acrylamide reduction fits very well with our clean-label strategy. Our extensive laboratory and sensory analyses have demonstrated that foods produced using Acryleast are comparable in appearance, aroma, flavor and texture to those produced without Acryleast. It is a versatile solution that offers manufacturers an acrylamide reduction strategy that is much more effective than alternative approaches, which require them to fundamentally change their process e.g. lowering temperatures, processing time or changing raw ingredients.”
Kerry has initially focused Acryleast application analysis in the categories of baked goods, however this is being expanded to snacks, processed potatoes and other categories, as the market for non-GMO acrylamide reduction solutions continues to gain traction.
Kerry rolled out Acryleast globally starting Jan. 29 (with the exception of 11 markets*). More information can be found on Kerry.com.
What is acrylamide?
“It can be produced when vegetables that contain the amino acid asparagine, such as potatoes, are heated to high temperatures in the presence of certain sugars (1, 2). It is also a component of tobacco smoke.” — National Cancer Institute
