Yeast Extract
With today’s close scrutiny of food safety and doubts about the reliability of ingredients, this page introduces yeast extract, a natural ingredient that is attracting a lot of attention.
What Is “Yeast Extract”?
“Yeast” is a microorganism that is essential for making alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, and whisky, fermented seasonings such as miso and soy sauce, and bread.
Through fermentation, yeast plays a very important role in people’s diet. It adds alcohol and aroma to alcoholic beverages, and imparts flavor, aroma to miso and soy sauce, and makes bread fluffy, which are very important in the lives of the Japanese people. It is also rich in nutrients such as protein (amino acids and peptides), vitamins, minerals and nucleic acids.
“Yeast extract” is an extract of the components contained in yeast and is available in powder, paste, or liquid form. Yeast extract has been used as a seasoning for many years in Europe, where the umami of the amino acids it contains attracted attention. As it is made from natural ingredients, it is considered a safe, reliable food ingredient.
Uses of Yeast Extract
As a natural seasoning with a rich umami, yeast extract has various uses, particularly in the food sector. Yeast extracts made by Asahi Group Foods are used in a wide range of areas, including food and nutraceuticals, biotechnology, cosmetics, and pet food.
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Food Sector
As a natural seasoning with a rich umami, yeast extracts are used as the secret ingredient in a wide range of food types, including ramen and soups, curry pastes, dashi, and retort-pouch foods, etc.
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Health Food Sector
Yeast extracts are used in health foods and supplements, etc.
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Biotechnology Sector
The rich vitamin, mineral, and amino acid contained in yeast extract promotes the fermentation of microorganisms.
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Cosmetics Sector
RNA and cysteine peptides contained in yeast are used in cosmetics.
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Pet Food Sector
Yeast extracts are used as palatability enhancers for dogs, cats, and other pets.
Asahi Group’s Research System Supported by
Cutting-Edge Yeast-Related Technology
Yeast plays a key role in determining the taste of beer in its production. Asahi Breweries has been deeply aware of the importance of yeast since the company was established. In the Meiji era (1868 – 1912), it began collecting superior yeasts from around the world to cultivate pure yeast cultures, which was a cutting-edge technology at the time. The company also began research into food and pharmaceutical applications with a focus on the excellent nutritional balance of yeast.
As a result, there is now a “yeast bank” containing several thousand varieties of yeast at the laboratories of Asahi Quality & Innovations, Ltd. and a vast amount of information of yeast is stored in a database.
This cutting-edge yeast technology produced the unprecedented hit product, “Asahi Super Dry.”
