Functional Technologies is a late-stage research and development company focused on commercializing through in-licensing --- and also researching and developing --- proprietary yeast and algae-based products for the global food, beverage and healthcare markets. Our critical core competency is in fundamental and applied research to discover and commercialize exciting new properties and platform technologies from these valuable single-celled organisms.
Through an extensive research and development program, and the ramping-up of manufacturing facilities in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, Functional Technologies is committed to making advances on a number of promising research fronts. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, BC, and also maintains a technical marketing presence with fully support capabilities in Napa, California.
While research continues, the company is at present commercializing several proprietary technologies, including two unique yeast technology platforms that enable a yeast strain's natural and innate functions to prevent the formation of common contaminants --- specifically, acrylamide, hydrogen sulphide gas (H2S) and ethyl carbamate (urethane) --- in food, wines and other beverages. Functional Technologies has developed market-ready strains of its H2S- and EC-reducing yeasts for winemaking, and is now commercializing them through trials with wineries.
Acrylamide is a World Heath Organization (WHO) Group 2A carcinogen that is generated naturally as a byproduct of frying, baking or toasting carbohydrate-rich processed foods such as bread and baked goods, potato chips, French fries, cookies and baby food. First emerging as a public health concern as a widespread food contaminant in 2002, acrylamide mitigation is a major objective of food safety organizations worldwide. Our acrylamide solution utilizes proprietary enhanced yeasts to naturally degrade asaparagine, the main precursor substance of acrylamide.
H2S is a colourless, volatile gas that produces a distinctive unpleasant noxious odour in wine, beer and other yeast-fermented beverages. It is one of the most common occurring sensory defects in winemaking worldwide, and is a widespread and costly quality-control problem in commercial wine production.
Ethyl carbamate (urethane or EC) is a WHO Group 2A carcinogen that is generated naturally as a byproduct of yeast fermentation. Ethyl carbamate is found in varying quantities in many commonly consumed fermented foods and beverages, including wine, brandy, whiskey, sake, bread, soy sauce, sherry and beer. All of these products are a concern individually, but it is the cumulative daily exposure --- through consumption of a combination of these foods and beverages --- that has become a matter of rising concern for health regulators and cancer organizations worldwide in recent years.
Through its subsidiary, Phyterra Yeast Inc., the company is trialing its H2S- and EC-reducing yeasts with numerous wineries.