Processing routes: why one yeast becomes six different ingredients

The 2026 food catalog opens with processing-route classification rather than with a product list, and gives its reason directly: for importers and distributors, the processing route provides the clearest view of what is being purchased, registered, stocked and positioned in the market.

That framing is useful well beyond logistics. Two products can carry similar protein figures and still behave differently in a formulation because they left the process at different points. Knowing the route tells you what the material is before you read a single specification line.

The catalog groups its twenty-three food-grade trade names into nine processing routes:

Declared values from the 2026 PANGOO data sheets and catalogs.

The feed catalog uses a parallel structure, grouping sixteen products by the role they play rather than by route: a protein series, a functional series, a specialty series and species-specific products. The correspondence is close enough to be useful — a cell-wall fraction appears on both sides, and so does a whole-cell nutritional yeast.

This is why two products from different catalogs can be compared directly. CelluGuard™ Yeast Cell Wall and the food-grade Yeast Cell Wall series are both cell-wall fractions; what differs is the specification they are held to, not the part of the cell they come from.

Moving along the routes changes three things in particular, and they tend to move together:

Protein concentration. Whole-cell products sit around 40–45%, an autolyzed yeast around 45–50% with a defined peptide fraction, a yeast extract at 56% or higher on a dry basis, and a concentrated yeast protein at 70% or 80%.

Solubility. Extraction and hydrolysis produce soluble material; cell-wall fractions are largely insoluble unless a soluble grade is deliberately made. The food range sells beta-glucan in both forms — BetaGuard™ 70 as an insoluble standard grade and BetaGuard™ 80 as a water-soluble high-purity grade — and YeastMatrix™ is a water-soluble polysaccharide complex.

Nucleotide content. Nucleotides survive into the extract and hydrolysate routes and are largely left behind in a purified protein. NucleoUmami™ and NucleoPaste™ are documented as rich in naturally occurring taste nucleotides, and NucleoPeptide™ declares nucleotides ≥ 10.0%.

A product registration is normally written against what the material is, not against the brand name. Route classification keeps a portfolio legible for import, registration and stock positioning, and it makes substitution decisions explicit: replacing a yeast extract with a hydrolysate is a change of route and will change the formulation, whereas replacing one extract with another is a change of grade.