Nutritional yeast

Nutritional yeast flakes

Plaza Theatre in Atlanta offers vegan visitors nutritional yeast for popcorn seasoning.

Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast, often a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is sold commercially as a food product. It is sold in the form of flakes or as a yellow powder and can be found in the bulk aisle of most natural food stores. It is popular with vegans and vegetarians and may be used as an ingredient in recipes or as a condiment.^[1]

While it contains trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals, it is only a significant source of some B-complex vitamins. Sometimes nutritional yeast is fortified with vitamin B₁₂.

Nutritional yeast has a strong flavor that is described as nutty, cheesy, or creamy, which makes it popular as an ingredient in cheese substitutes. It is often used by vegans in place of cheese.^[2] It can be used in many recipes in place of cheese, such as in mashed and fried potatoes, and atop scrambled tofu. Another popular use is as a topping for popcorn.^[3]

In Australia, it is sometimes sold as "savoury yeast flakes". In New Zealand, it has long been known as Brufax. In the United States it is sometimes referred to as "nooch" (also spelled nüch), "hippie dust", or "yeshi," an Ethiopian name meaning "for a thousand". Though "nutritional yeast" usually refers to commercial products, inadequately fed prisoners of war have used "home-grown" yeast to prevent vitamin deficiency.^[4] Nutritional yeast is different from yeast extract, which has a very strong flavour and comes in the form of a dark brown paste.

Commercial production

Nutritional yeast is produced by culturing a yeast in a nutrient medium for several days. The primary ingredient in the growth medium is glucose, often from either sugarcane or beet molasses. When the yeast is ready, it is killed (deactivated) with heat and then harvested, washed, dried and packaged. The species of yeast used is often a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.^[5] The strains are cultured and selected for desirable characteristics, and often exhibit a different phenotype from strains of S. cerevisiae used in baking and brewing.

Nutrition

Red Star nutritional yeast flakes

Nutritional values for nutritional yeast vary from one manufacturer to another. On average, two tablespoons provides 60 calories with 5 g of carbohydrates (four grams of which is fiber). A serving also provides 9 g of protein and is a complete protein, providing all nine amino acids the human body cannot produce. While fortified and unfortified nutritional yeast both provide iron, the fortified yeast provides 20 percent of the recommended daily value, while unfortified yeast provides only 5 percent. Unfortified nutritional yeast provides from 35 to 100 percent of vitamins B1 and B2.

Because nutritional yeast is often used by vegans, who need to supplement their diets with vitamin B₁₂, there has been confusion about the source of the B₁₂ in nutritional yeast. Yeast cannot produce B₁₂, which is only naturally produced by bacteria. Some brands of nutritional yeast, though not all, are fortified with vitamin B₁₂. When fortified, the vitamin B₁₂ is produced separately (commonly cyanocobalamin) and then added to the yeast.^[6][7]

Although some species of bacteria that can produce B₁₂ could potentially grow along with S. cerevisiae in the wild, commercially produced nutritional yeast is grown in controlled conditions that would normally not allow those bacteria to grow. Therefore, nutritional yeast should not be relied upon as a source of B₁₂ unless it is fortified.

Glutamic acid

Nutritional yeast products do not have any added monosodium glutamate; however, all inactive yeast contains a certain amount of free glutamic acid because when the yeast cells are killed, the protein that comprises the cell walls begins to degrade, breaking down into the amino acids that originally formed it. Glutamic acid is a naturally occurring amino acid in all yeast cells, as well as in vegetables, fungi, and animals.

See also

• Vegemite
• Marmite

References

1. Brown, Elizabeth (25 April 2009). "Singing the praises of nutritional yeast". Santa Monica Daily Press. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
2. Stepaniak, Joanne (2003). The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook (10th ed.). Summertown, Tenn.: Book Pub. Co. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-57067-151-7.
3. Wasserman, Debra (1997). Conveniently Vegan (Revised. ed.). Baltimore, Md.: Vegetarian Resource Group. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-931411-18-2.
4. J G Lee HARUKOE (HARUKU)
5. Industrial Exploitation Of Microorganisms. New Delhi: I.K. International Pub. House. 2010. p. 6. ISBN 9789380026534.
6. "Nutritional Yeast". bestnaturalfoods.com. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
7. "THE 5 STEPS IN MANUFACTURING NUTRITIONAL YEAST". Lessafre Human Care. Retrieved 14 December 2011.

External links

• Environmental rules for the manufacture of nutritional yeast