Organic deactivated yeast flakes — savoury, nutty and distinctly cheesy, and the single most useful seasoning in a plant-based kitchen. Around 28% protein, high in fibre, vegan and gluten-free.
The thing every vegan needs to read first
This is organic nutritional yeast, which means it is unfortified — it is NOT a source of vitamin B12.
This matters more than any other sentence on the page. A great many people believe nutritional yeast supplies B12, because the well-known non-organic brands are fortified with synthetic B12 added after production. Organic certification does not permit that addition, so an organic product like this one contains essentially none.
Yeast does not make B12 — only bacteria do. If you eat no animal products, you need a B12 supplement or reliably fortified food, and this is neither. Ask us and we will show you one. B12 deficiency develops slowly and quietly and can cause irreversible nerve damage, so this is not a detail to leave to chance.
What it does naturally contain is a useful amount of the other B vitamins — thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B6 and folate are all genuinely present in yeast.
What it is
Saccharomyces cerevisiae — the same species as baker's and brewer's yeast — grown on a sugar medium, harvested, washed, and then deactivated by heat and dried into flakes. Deactivated means dead: it will not raise bread, it will not ferment anything, and it will not colonise your gut. It is a seasoning, not a live culture.
It is also not the same thing as brewer's yeast, which is a by-product of beer-making and tastes markedly more bitter.
Why it tastes of cheese
Because of glutamates. Yeast is naturally rich in free glutamic acid, the compound responsible for savoury depth — umami — in Parmesan, soy sauce, anchovies and ripe tomatoes. Nothing is added; the savouriness is inherent to the ingredient. Alongside it are nucleotides that amplify the same effect, which is why a spoonful does so much more to a dish than its quantity suggests.
How to use it
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On pasta, straight from the jar, wherever you would have used Parmesan.
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Popcorn — toss it on while the popcorn is still warm and slightly oily so it sticks. This is the classic use and it is genuinely excellent.
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Vegan cheese sauce — whisked into a roux with mustard, or blended with soaked cashews and a little lemon.
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Scrambled tofu, risotto, soups, mashed potato, gravy — anywhere a dish tastes flat and you want depth without adding salt.
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Roast vegetables, sprinkled over in the last five minutes.
Add it at the end. Prolonged high heat dulls the flavour, and the flakes scorch.
Two honest cautions
Gout. Yeast is high in purines, which the body converts to uric acid. If you have gout or a history of uric acid kidney stones, nutritional yeast in quantity is worth being moderate about — this is rarely mentioned and it is a real consideration.
Crohn's disease. Some people with Crohn's find yeast aggravates symptoms, and antibodies to S. cerevisiae are a recognised marker in the condition. If you have Crohn's and eat it regularly, it is worth noticing whether it agrees with you.
Beyond those, it is a straightforward food. There is no authorised EU health claim for nutritional yeast.
Storage
Cool, dry, airtight and out of the light. The flakes absorb moisture and go soft and clumpy in a damp cupboard, and the B vitamins in them degrade in sunlight.
Iswari
Dragon Superfoods
