Abstract: Active dried baker's yeast is prepared by selecting a yeast strain stable to drying, cultivating the yeast strain in several aerobic fermentation stages and selecting conditions for the last stage that produce a compressed yeast having preferred gas release characteristics, harvesting and carefully washing the yeast from the last stage to obtain compressed yeast having the preferred gas release characteristics, adding to the compressed yeast an emulsion of an emulsifying agent, dividing the resultant mixture into fine particles, and drying the particles by flash pneumatic conveyor drying and/or fluidized bed drying to obtain active dry yeast having greater than 92% dry matter content. The dry yeast have an activity almost equal to fresh yeast on non-sweetened dough or on sweetened dough.

Abstract: A dry yeast composition in particulate form containing at least 92% dry matter is prepared consisting essentially of active dry bakers' yeast capable of fermenting sweetened doughs containing more than 5% sugar and an emulsifying agent having an HLB value of between 3 and 11. The emulsifying agent is added to the yeast before drying and protects the yeast during drying.