November 9/Vancouver, B.C./Marketwire -- Functional Technologies Corp. (FTC) signed an agreement enabling an undisclosed leading European producer of sweet & savory baked goods, snacks and confectionaries to evaluate FTC’s proprietary acrylamide-preventing (AP) yeast technology in the partner's commercial materials used to produce many of their branded food products.

According to a FTC release, the partner is regarded as a top-tiered confectionary producer in Europe and is seeking innovative strategies that mitigate acrylamide in numerous products, but with minimal impact on sensory attributes of the end-product. Given previous successful studies, including in end-user provided commercial materials for the production of non-bread products, the application of FTC’s AP yeast products are expected to yield valuable, affirmative data. Its AP yeast platform will be evaluated in pre-pilot scale trials that simulate commercial conditions, which should also simultaneously enable preliminary development of production protocols.

This agreement adds to FTC’s tally of several other existing collaborative and testing relationships with multinational producers of food products that span several sectors in major regions of the world. Various companies operating in both traditional and non-traditional (i.e. non-bread) baker's yeast markets such as baked goods, biscuits, snack foods, pasta-based foods or sweet & savoury foods have already engaged Functional Technologies to test its proprietary AP yeast strains in a variety of products. Several additional companies are in discussions with management to begin the same over the next few months.

"We are pleased the attractiveness of our proprietary platform solution to prevent and mitigate acrylamide in a variety of foods continues to be validated, as multinational food companies seek to remain competitive in the global marketplace by addressing the health and liability associations with this chemical," said Howard Louie, chairman and CEO of FTC. "It is a pleasure and privilege for our management and technical teams to work with sector-leading companies, and to continue to establish the efficacy, commercial protocols and thereby commercial appeal of our AP yeasts."

 From the November 9, 2011, Prepared Foods' Daily News.