Canada-based Renaissance BioScience has been granted new patent allowances for its acrylamide-reducing yeast technology (ARY). Joining the U.S., Japan, Indonesia, Chile and Columbia are regulatory bodies in China, Russia, India, Australia and Vietnam. Developing ARY has been the company’s contribution to reduce the formation of acrylamide in everyday and commonly consumed cooked foods.

This non-GMO ingredient reduces the formation of acrylamide, a carcinogen that can be found in a number of baby and children’s biscuits. Aspargine, a naturally occurring precursor amino acid that’s in carbohydrate-rich food. This converts to acrylamide when cooked using heat, or when temperature reaches at least 120 degrees Celsius.

Utilising adaptive evolution engineering techniques, food with non-GMO ARY can be traditionally cooked witih heat, without any risk of acrylamide formation.  

Renaissance BioScience CEO and CSO, Dr. John Husnik, commented on the newly granted patents: “As an intellectual property-focused company we are pleased to receive the new patent grants and allowances in the major markets of China, Russia, India, Australia and Vietnam. These new patents join those already granted or pending in other major markets around the world, to protect the use of our acrylamide-reducing yeast in many different and important food manufacturing applications.”

He added, “Acrylamide is a carcinogen of global concern—especially for children, who tend to consume more than adults due to their daily diet of many common foods that unfortunately contain this carcinogen (crackers, bread, cookies, cereals and the like). We are especially pleased that our acrylamide-reducing yeast is finding acceptance and being commercialized by food manufacturers in markets all around the world with a mandate to re duce the presence of this contaminant in their products.”