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| Q | What price does yeast sell for, and how much will Functional Technologies' yeast cost? |
| A | Prices for yeast range from US$2 per kg for bakers yeast, to US$140 per kg for specialty yeasts like wine yeasts. |
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| Q | How much yeast goes into a bottle of wine, and how much will it cost producers to use Functional Technologies' yeasts? |
| A | Using a conservative estimate of 0.2 grams of yeast required to produce a litre of wine, we estimate that at US$100 per kg, this equals about 2 cents per litre or about 1 1/2 cents per bottle of wine. |
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| Q | Who should be aware of what Functional Technologies is doing? |
| A | People concerned with health and food safety should be aware. This includes the scientific community, industry and regulatory bodies to the general public who would want to know about a new technology which provides a viable solution for substantially reducing current ethyl carbamate levels in wines and distilled spirits. |
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| Q | What sector is this company in? |
| A | The company is a food science company presently focusing its research, on reducing a known carcinogen listed on the California Proposition 65 List through a proprietary yeast technology. |
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| Q | Will this technology benefit just Canada and Canadian products? |
| A | No, the Ethyl Carbamate problem exists globally with implications on many products produced around the world. Functional Technologies has had inquires from beverage producers, yeast manufactures and health regulators worldwide. |
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| Q | How easy is it to expand your product line assuming you are successful? |
| A | Currently, Functional Technologies has four yeast strains in commercial development. These yeasts are used commercially and globally in the production of red wine, white wine, brandy, and sake. Expansion of our product line simply involves applying our simple yet effective yeast technology to addtional yeast strains, a process that normally takes about six months. Numerous strains can be transformed simultaneously. |
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| Q | Are the regulatory bodies aware and concerned about Ethyl Carbamate? Is this a new issue? |
| A | Yes, public health interests groups such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and the World Health Organization are closely monitoring Ethyl Carbamate levels in foods and beverages. Ethyl Carbamate is scheduled tentatively for the 64th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), to be held in February 2005 to assess toxic risks, intervention strategies, and set international food and beverage standards. No, this is not new; Ethyl Carbamate monitoring has been ongoing for 20 years. |
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| Q | Does the wine industry care about this issue? |
| A | The wine industry is very concerned about the presence of Ethyl Carbamate. The U.S. FDA's Ethyl Carbamate Action Manual published in 1992 outlines methods to reduce Ethyl Carbamate in wine. This manual describes methods of reduction which include restrictions on vineyards for things such as; nitrogen content of fertilizers, cover crops used, rootstock choices, addition of nutrients to wine juice, different yeast strains, and shipment and storage, all in an attempt to reduce the production of Ethyl Carbamate. Also the Wine Institute, a public policy advocacy association of California wineries, has established an Ethyl Carbamate Working Group. |
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| Q | If the wine industry (or any other food or beverage producer) becomes aware of a solution for virtually eliminating the presence of the ethyl carbamate carcinogen from their products but does nothing about it would they become liable? |
| A | We cannot definitively answer this question. However, precedence has been set in the tobacco industry, where class action lawsuits have been won against the major cigarette manufacturers because they had previous knowledge that their products caused cancer. |
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| Q | How do I learn more about Ethyl Carbamate? |
| A | Ethyl Carbamate is listed as a known Group 2B carcinogen by the International Agency on Cancer (IARC) and a surplus of information is available from such organizations as US FDA, The Wine Institute, The World Health Organization, the US Environmental Protection Agency, The Food Standards Agency in the UK, and others. |
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| Q | How big is the world market for yeast in wine and distilled spirits? |
| A | Annual worldwide market for yeast in these products is estimated at approximately 35, 625 metric tons (figures are based on estimations of available information as publicly disclosed global figures). Prices for these beverage yeasts range from US$20-140/kg. |
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| Q | Are there any precedents for an industry to make changes due to a perceived carcinogen or toxic substance? |
| A | Yes, the tobacco industry is an excellent example as they have implemented a number of changes with the most obvious being the warning labels on its products. As well as numerous other major industries including the removal of lead in automotive gasoline. |
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