Selenium yeast, produced by fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a selenium-rich media, is a recognized source of organic food-form selenium. In this process, virtually all of the selenium structurally substitutes for sulfur in the amino acid methionine thus forming selenomethionine via the same pathways and enzymes that are used to form sulfur-containing methionine. Owing to its similarity to S-containing methionine, selenomethionine is taken up nonspecifically and becomes part of yeast protein. It is this metabolic route that makes selenium yeast valuable in animal and human nutrition, since it offers the same organic form of selenium produced by food-chain autotrophs (i.e., most plants and certain blue-green algae).
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Human health applications
Selenium is physiologically essential and may also offer a protective effect against several degenerative diseases. The organic form of selenium provided by selenium yeast has been shown to differ in bioavailability and metabolism compared with inorganic (e.g., selenate, selenite) forms of dietary selenium. Dietary supplementation using selenium yeast has been associated with increased ability to counteract oxidative stress. Furthermore, selenium yeast has been used in a wide range of studies aimed at examining the importance of selenium status in the incidence and progression of a variety of infectious and degenerative diseases.
Animal feed and food-animal product applications
Selenium supplementation in yeast form has been shown to have beneficial effects in many species, especially on animal immune status, growth and reproduction The consequent improvements in productivity can be of economic benefit to livestock producers for many reasons, including greater overall efficiency of feedstuff use.
Selenium yeast supplementation of food-animal diets has an added nutritional benefit to human consumers of food-animal products. Dietary selenomethionine-containing plant or yeast protein can be also stored nonspecifically in animal protein, which can result in nutritionally useful selenium content in meat, milk, and eggs. Consequently, strategies to supplement animal feed with selenium yeast have led to the development of selenium-rich functional foods, including selenium-enriched eggs and meats for human consumption.
Safety
Since 2000, selenium yeast (S. cerevisiae CNCM I-3060) has been reviewed and received the following approvals for use in animal and human diets:
A review of the scientific literature concluded that selenium yeast from reputable manufacturers is adequately characterised, of reproducible quality, and shows no evidence of toxicity in long-term supplementation studies at doses as high as 400 and 800 micrograms per day (exceeding the EC tolerable upper intake level of 300 micrograms per day).
Analytical chemistry
Total selenium in selenium yeast can be reliably determined using open acid digestion to extract selenium from the yeast matrix followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Determination of the selenium species selenomethionine can be achieved via proteolytic digestion of selenium yeast followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).