Effect of Standardized Yeast Proteineous Flavors
on Philippines Foods

撮要：從酵母抽提的蛋白質作為食品香料用途已有悠長歷史，而啤酒優質酵母，透過產品標準化生產程序，這些香料對食品提升風味和口感標準化的功能更具貢獻；本文描述佳合益鮮美EA-6650配搭菲律賓食品的良佳效果。

Introduction

Yeast extract is a kind of savoury flavours for many meaty, spicy and vegetarian foods. Its function is (a) to import a meaty note, both for taste and aroma, and (b) to boost up the original meaty character. Almost all yeast extracts are produced by the species called “Saccharomyces cerevisiae” from two main sources, namely bakery and brewery. Generally, the yeasts undergo a process known as “antolysis”, by which the enzymes of its own digest or breakdown own protein to peptides and amino acids. After the yeast cell debris filtered off, the proteineous substrates are concentrated as resultant savoury flavour.

However, autolysis is a complicated biological process, which is rather difficult to control. In addition, quality of final product is mainly contributed by the amount and types of proteineous materials while variations may occur according to the sources of materials. Therefore, it could not be expected that such flavors always excellent and consistent in quality from batch to batch in production.

Standardized Yeast Proteineous Flavours (SYPF) are made from extracting the essence from brewers’ yeast. Various types of amino acids are they added to maintain consistent parameters including total solid, total protein, total amino acids, and ratio of amino nitrogen to total nitrogen. With these measurables in consistency, the flavors can be added to food products, not only as a flavour imparting/ boosting agent, but also an instrument in controlling the quality of the aroma and taste profiles.

In this study, a typical SYPF is chosen, and added into a great variety of Philippino foods. The optimum application levels were observed and determined.

Materials

The SYPF used was Excelroma EA-6650 manufactured by Guangzhou M&S Food Technology Ltd.(GZMS) It was a viscous liquid with specification：total solid ≧60.0%, total protein ≧34.5%, total amino nitrogen ≧3.0, ratio AN/TN 0.54.

All food items for testing were brought from a supermarket in Manila. There were 16 food items in total, all manufactured in Philippines.

Methodology

Each food item was separated into two portions, one for preliminary and other for fine tuning. The preliminary portion was again separated into five smaller portions of 10-40g each, depending on the nature of food products. SYPF was added at concentrations of 0% (Control), 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0% and 4.0%. All mixtures were stirred well, and tasted by SVG(Stephen V Gan Jr.), VH (Vincent Ho) and one of the GZMS staff. For any controversy, final decision was made by SVG. For food items numbered 10-15, hot water was added to content as per label instruction before testing; the figures of final weights are used.

Based on the results, the remaining portions were again separated into five portions with dosage levels so designed for best theoretical taste. Same panel tests were performed.

Results

The optimal concentrations of SYPF were summarized below. Figures in parenthesis were chosen by GZMS staffs including VH.

Certain foods containing high meaty content should be added with higher dosage of SYPF, like Karne Norte at 2% and Bopis 3.5%. On the other hand, for those foods with very little protein content, the effect of SYPF is not significant.

Conclusion

As can be seen from the results, the quality of savory food produced in Philippines could be improved by simply adding a certain amount of SYPF in product formulation, especially those products contain high protein content. In fact, the main constituents of SYPF are also derived from protein, being able to withstand heat treatment in their manufacturing process. The yeast-based amino acids give a stronger meaty notes, which Philippines people like. The recommended dosage is 0.5 – 1.0%.

As this study involves personal taste preferences, the recommended use dosage serves as a reference value only for manufacturers. The way that manufacturers utilize SYPF is also subjective.

Acknowledgement: GThe author Stephen V Gan wishes to thank M&S Industries Limited to provide his technical training at Guangzhou including the study of SYPF, so that the write-up of this article is made possible.