News & Media

U.S. FDA accepts GRAS notification for Non-GMO Acrylamide-Reducing Yeast

Vancouver, Canada — May 19, 2016 — Renaissance BioScience Corp., a leading global yeast innovation company, is pleased to announce that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has “no questions” in regards to Renaissance’s Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) notice (GRAS Notice No. GRN 000604) for its non-GMO, acrylamide-reducing (AR) baker’s yeast strain.

“The acceptance of our acrylamide-reducing yeast as GRAS by the U.S. FDA is a significant step forward in the commercialization and marketing of the AR yeast for a wide variety of food and beverage sectors,” said Dr. John Husnik, CEO of Renaissance BioScience. “GRAS status provides further validation to food manufacturers worldwide to apply our innovative AR yeast to address the acrylamide problem that continues to be a concern in many foods and beverages. 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%. 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.”

“With government reports concerning acrylamide being issued recently by the U.S. FDA, the EFSA, the U.K. FSA, Health Canada and the Japanese government, acrylamide reduction continues to be an important focus for health and food safety regulators, governments, and food and beverage manufacturers around the world ,” added Dr. Husnik.

Renaissance’s AR yeast now joins other mainstream ingredients with GRAS status, such as conventional baker’s yeast and other food and beverage yeasts. The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Renaissance Ingredients Inc., is responsible for commercializing the AR yeast to the global food and beverage industry.

About acrylamide
Acrylamide is a World Health Organization Group IIA carcinogen that has been shown to be mutagenic and neurotoxic in a variety of laboratory animal studies. In 2002, acrylamide was identified in a range of common foods, including bread, toast, potato chips, fries, cereals and coffee. Acrylamide is not added to food, but forms naturally from the amino acid asparagine and reducing sugars when foods are heated above 120 °C (e.g., during baking, roasting or frying). Notably, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released their definitive opinion on acrylamide in food in June 2015, stating, “Acrylamide in food is a human health concern.”

About Renaissance Ingredients Inc.
Renaissance Ingredients Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Renaissance BioScience Corp., is responsible for commercializing acrylamide-reducing (AR) yeast for the global food manufacturing industry. The company’s non-GMO AR yeast strain (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) has been found to reduce acrylamide by up to 90% in a variety of food products by naturally consuming the main precursor compounds to acrylamide: asparagine and reducing sugars (i.e. glucose, fructose). For commercialization inquiries and more information about our AR yeast, go to www.renaissanceingredients.com.

About Renaissance BioScience Corp.
Renaissance BioScience Corp., a leading global yeast technology company based in Vancouver, Canada, is a privately held yeast innovation company that develops yeast-based platform technologies to solve industrial efficiency and consumer health problems in the food, beverage, alcohol, biofuel and pharmaceutical industries. The wholly owned commercial subsidiaries of Renaissance BioScience Corp. include Renaissance Yeast Inc., which commercializes H₂S-preventing wine yeast; Renaissance Ingredients Inc., which commercializes acrylamide-reducing baker’s yeast; and Bright Brewers Yeast Inc., which commercializes beer yeast technologies. Detailed information about the Renaissance group of companies can be accessed at www.renaissancebioscience.com.

For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Steve Campbell
Campbell & Company Strategies Inc.
Communications and Public Relations
Vancouver, BC, Canada
01 604-888-5267
scampbell@campbellpr.bc.ca