Kerry secures licence agreement for acrylamide-reducing yeast

Kerry has signed a license agreement with Renaissance BioScience Corp to supply Renaissance’s Acryleast, a non-GMO acrylamide-reducing yeast enzyme, to food and beverage manufacturers as of 2019.

Acryleast is a natural yeast enzyme that is said to reduce acrylamide by up to 90% in a range of food and beverage products, including biscuits, crackers, French fries, potato crisps and coffee.

Canada-based Renaissance BioScience said the clean-label solution “has no or minimal changes to manufacturing processes and no impact on flavour, aroma and texture”.

The agreement is timely given new EU acrylamide regulations, which came into effect in April and have forced manufacturers to actively reduce the amount of acrylamide in their final products.

Mike Woulfe, VP business development enzymes at Kerry, said: “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% to food producers around the globe.”

Cormac O’Cleirigh, chief business development officer at Renaissance BioScience Corp, added: “Kerry is a world leader in the food and beverage industry and are an ideal partner for us to globalise 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.”

Last year, Orkla Food Ingredients secured a license agreement with Renaissance BioScience Corp to promote its acrylamide-reducing yeast enzyme to the Nordic and Eastern European markets.