Though the claims that acrylamide is dangerous seem to be more manufactured hype than science, that isn't stopping the free market from providing an alternative.
Renaissance BioScience Corp. has received a “no questions” response from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its acrylamide-reducing baker’s yeast strain. The concern about acrylamide, a universal by-product of foods containing asparagine (which is a lot of them - many carbohydrate-rich foods have this natural amino acid), is because the International Agency for Research on Cancer, classified it as a Group 2A carcinogen (probably carcinogenic to humans.) That is a relatively mild categorization for the organization, which has come under fire for being taken over by consultants for Environmental Defense Fund. Sausage, for example, recently got classified as Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans), making it as hazardous as cigarettes and plutonium. Other products, such as cell phones and a common pesticide, have also looked dubious to experts in the science community.
GRAS designation would mean no further validation is needed and they just need to convince food manufacturers to replace conventional baker’s yeast.
Their 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, such as glucose and fructose.
