Yeast extract is a versatile food ingredient derived from the natural ingredient yeast. It can intensify and add depth of flavor, enrich foods with freshness or provide specific flavors.

Food manufacturers could easily switch one MSG brand to another without any testing, unlike MSG or I+G, which are the same in flavor profile, colorless and odorless. The competition between MSG or I+G manufacturers is in price and cost only.

Extrait de levure is closer to natural flavor and spice, which have its own flavor profile, color, and smell, and different from one factory to another, and there are batch differences from one factory.

Yeast extract user and distributor should be careful about both of those physics characteristics of yeast extract when choosing suppliers,

For a food manufacturer, it is essential to know how to select the best quality yeast extract while adding to the food you produce to achieve the best results.

For a distributor, a good supplier who provides stable and high-quality yeast extract could support businesses for years. The flavor and other yeast extract are physics characteristics not easy to replace by a newcomer.

In this article, we will tell you all.

1. The quality of yeast extracts varies between yeast sources

There are two main species of yeast used in making extracts which are generally used in food production. One is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the same yeast used in bread baking, beer, and alcohol production. If we talk yeast with other descriptions, we usually mean saccharomyces cerevisiae. Another one is Cyberlindnera jadinii, also called torula yeast.

The most widely used yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, including baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, and alcoholic yeast. These names come after how saccharomyces cerevisiae is cultured.

Both saccharomyces cerevisiae, including baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, and alcoholic yeast or Cyberlindnera jadinii are considered to consume safely by humans or animals, and their extract could be called yeast extract. However, there are different characteristics from a different source of yeast.

La levure de boulanger

La levure de boulanger or bakery is an ideal source of yeast extract. Only this kind of saccharomyces cerevisiae is pure cultured yeast. Pure culture yeast means to culture yeast to the cell, not collect the alcohol when yeast is fermented like brewer yeast or alcoholic yeast do.

The baker’s yeast could be made into instant yeast, which is used for making bread. But in the yeast extract industry, the baker’s yeast is cultured to use the content in the yeast cell. They are not making bread. Bakery yeast extract is the most wildly used yeast extract, which is good in flavor and can be produced economically. And because it is pure culture, it can select particular strains like High Glutamic acid, High RNA, high protein, or high GSH. The special strain could make the advanced model have a better flavor.

Baker’s yeast is cultured from the molasses from a sugar refinery in North China and Europe; the molasses source is beet. In contrast, in South China, South American, Australia, South East Asia, African, the molasses source is sugar cane. The beet molasses bakery yeast extract is more likely to have light color and flavor profile. There is little sweetness that comes from betaine, for sugar cane molasses yeast extract might have a deeper color and complex flavor profile, and there might have stronger long-lasting than beet molasses yeast extract does.

La levure de bière

La levure de bière is the yeast used that comes from the beer factory, so it is considered the by-product of the beer industry. Most brewer yeast is not good in quality. Because the when the Beer is done fermentation. The yeast will break down by itself. The process is called autolysis. If the yeast is autolyzed, the ingredient of culture medium like hops will get into yeast. There is a beer-like smell and bitterness in Brewer yeast extract.

And the brewer yeast may not be stable in batches, especially since some brewer yeast manufacturer is collecting brewer yeast from different yeast factories.

However, there is professional brewer yeast manufacture from china, japan, and Germany; they have the technology to debitter the brewer yeast extract and control the autolysis of the yeast. Good quality brewer yeast extract is and ideal for cheaper application. But as the by-product, the brewer yeast could not make advanced products.

And there is a special application for the brewer yeast extract, especially brewer yeast extract paste. It is for the raw material for the reaction flavor. Because there is abundant vitamin B2 in the brewer yeast extract and VB2 is essential for the aromas for reaction flavor.

 Alcoholic yeast

Alcoholic yeast is the by-product of yeast from alcohol factories after alcohol is made. Not like brewer yeast should control the beer quality, alcohol factory is to get as much alcohol as possible, and the alcohol yeast almost autolyzed after the alcohol is fermented. The alcohol yeast extract has a weird flavor and smell.

Cyberlindnera jadinii, torula yeast, is considered good quality yeast source to make yeast extract. There is a special amora from saccharomyces cerevisiae, and there is an advanced yeast extract that comes from torula yeast. Still, the fermentation of torula yeast is not as economical as bakery yeast does. The product is more expensive, so the application of torula yeast is not as wide as bakery yeast. There is some European and Japanese manufacturer of torula yeast, not in China.

2. To avoid the sour taste, off-note, and bitterness from yeast extract

If there is a sour taste from yeast extract, the yeast has been contaminated during the fermentation process.

If there is corruption or off-note taste from yeast extract, it means the yeast is storing a good way when is finished fermentation, the level of histamine may be high.

Bitterness comes from brewer yeast or more manufacture mix the bakery yeast with brewers yeast. Or the barkery yeast extract is not deal with Flavourzyme properly. Flavourzyme is a kind of enzyme that should be added during the hydrolysate process to avoid bitterness peptides.

All in all, the yeast extract should avoid those unpleasant taste which it is not made properly

3.The higher the solubility, the more widespread the application

The high solubility of yeast extract in water allows it to be applied in any food without restriction. So generally speaking, the higher its solubility, the better its quality.

The water-insoluble fraction of yeast extracts comes from the cell wall, and poor-quality yeast extracts may contain the yeast cell walls that are not entirely separated.

4. The color of the yeast extract should be close to the food to which it is applied

In general, the lighter-colored yeast extracts are of better quality. This way, it can be used in different types of food, but in some cases, such as soy sauce, which color is dark, then a darker colored yeast extract needs to be chosen.

5.The stronger the Umami flavor of yeast extracts, the better quality

We can test the Umami flavor intensity of yeast extracts by a test. First, dissolve the yeast extract into 2% solution, then hold the aqueous solution in your mouth and record the time for the umami flavor to stay in your mouth; the longer it lasts, the stronger the umami flavor.

Because this is a sensory test, it is best to get more than one person to perform the test simultaneously to get an accurate result.

In addition, two aspects need to be paid attention to as follow:

1. We need to compare the same models of yeast extract products. The advanced model with a stronger umami taste, such as high I+G yeast extract, also called high nucleotide yeast extract, can not be compared with ordinary products.

2. The two yeast extracts used for comparison must have the same salt content, as a product with a high salt content will affect the taste impact. In the case of different salinity levels, the product with the lower salt content needs to be added with a certain amount of salt to bring its salt content to the same level before the test.

6.There should not have other unpleasant odors

Yeast extract may have a yeasty flavor. The yeasty flavor comes from Oxidized fat. The yeasty flavor belongs to the off-note of the yeast.

While good quality yeast extract has a less yeasty flavor and a purer flavor profile, when adding to food, it may add more dose rather than lower quality yeast extract without worrying about bringing the yeasty to food.

7.The advanced yeast extract products deliver a long-lasting flavor and It is a good substitute for MSG

If you want a long-lasting flavor, it’s better to choose advanced yeast extract products, such as high I+G yeast extract or Kokumi yeast extract.

High I+G yeast extract uses the high nucleotide yeast as raw material. The nucleotide enriched yeast extract could improve the umami better than standard yeast extract, and it is used in enhancing umami, salt and sugar reduction, and MSG replacement.

Extrait de levure Kokumi is the most advanced YE product in the industry. Kokumi yeast extract could improve the overall flavor of the food and improve the original taste of food by changing the origin taste profile.

Yeast extracts may vary from batch to batch. The quality of yeast extracts can vary from batch to batch. It is necessary to use a manufacturer of yeast extracts with high stability to ensure consistency.

As a user of yeast extracts, the best thing you can do is keep a small amount of each batch of yeast extracts as a sample for comparison next time.

Comparing samples from different batches makes it possible to know whether the yeast extract manufacturer can produce a product with high stability.

Conclusion

Based on the above 8 tips, I am sure you have mastered selecting good quality yeast extracts.

Hiyeast is a yeast extract manufacturer which uses baker’s yeast as raw material. It has over 10 years of production experience, with its own R&D team and a stable fermentation source to ensure each batch’s high quality and consistency. Hiyeast delivers maximum value to their customers through differentiated technical and regulatory expertise and a comprehensive product portfolio in food applications.