Ajinomoto Co., Ltd.

Reiko Sugimoto

Hiroaki Nishiuchi

Yoichi Ueda

Yasushi Nishimura

Hidehiko Wakabayashi

Masanori Kohmura

Hirokazu Kawaguchi

Minori Ishiguro, Legal Representative

Tatsuya Ishiguro, Legal Representative

Shouji Ishiguro, Legal Representative

Youhei Ishiguro, Legal Representative

Gaku Hibino

Koh-ichiro Sano

A yeast which harbors a mutant glutathione synthetase having one or both of mutations selected from the group consisting of a mutation to replace a threonine residue at the position 47 with an isoleucine residue and a mutation to replace a glycine residue at the 387-position with an aspartic acid residue and produces &#x3b3;-glutamylcysteine. The yeast is cultured under suitable conditions, the resultant culture or fractionation product thereof or the resultant culture or fractionation product thereof that had been heat-treated is mixed with food or beverage materials and processed into foods or beverage to produce &#x3b3;-glutamylcysteine- or cysteine-containing foods or beverage.

&#x3b3;-glutamylcysteine producing yeast

The present invention relates to a method for producing a cysteine-rich food material by maintaining a food material containing &#x3b3;-glutamylcysteine at a ratio of at least 1 wt % to the solid content thereof at a temperature ranging from 50 to 120&#xb0; C. and at a pH ranging from 1 to 7. This process is conducted in the absence of a sugar and in the presence of water. The present invention also relates to a method for producing a cysteine-rich food material by reacting the food material with a &#x3b3;-glutamyl peptide hydrolase at a pH ranging from 3 to 9 and at a temperature ranging from 15 to 70&#xb0; C. in the present of water. Further, the present invention relates to a method for producing a flavor-enhancing material for use in food, food products obtained by these processes, and yeast cells or extracts for use in food products.

Process for producing a flavor-enhancing material for foods

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Tokyo, Japan

Reiko Sugimoto