News & Media

​Special Bakers Yeast Strain Cuts Acrylamide Risk

Released

Special Bakers Yeast Strain Cuts Acrylamide Risk

The deck is stacked against baked foods with highly colored crusts or made by high-temperature processes. Heat over 120ºC can trigger the formation of acrylamides from the amino acid asparagine present in many proteins. Acrylamide is a World Health Organization Group IIA carcinogen shown to be mutagenic and neurotoxic in a variety of laboratory animal studies. It occurs in common foods such as bread, toast, potato chips, fries, cereals and coffee. Children are most at risk because studies show they daily consume twice as much acrylamide as adults on a per kilogram body weight basis.