Household Ingredients Compared › Yeast (Singapore)

Yeast: what's actually in it?

Yeast is a living ingredient: the fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae, dried so it keeps, which wakes up in warm dough and makes the gas that lifts bread. Instant dry yeast is the Singapore home-baker's default — it goes straight into the flour, no blooming in water first. Active dry yeast is the older form and does need blooming. Fresh (compressed) yeast is a wet block with a short fridge life. The ingredient list for an instant yeast is short — yeast, plus a small amount of emulsifier to keep the granules free-flowing, plus sometimes ascorbic acid — and the differences between brands are which emulsifier and whether ascorbic acid is in there. This page covers baker's yeast only, not nutritional yeast, brewer's yeast or yeast extract (different products, different categories).

This page does not give a health score or a "best" pick. It shows the ingredient list as printed, with the country of manufacture as printed, and flags where a list could not be verified.

The headline, in 30 seconds

Instant yeast is yeast plus a little help. Saf-Instant Red lists yeast, sorbitan monostearate and ascorbic acid; Mauripan lists baker's yeast, emulsifier (E491) and ascorbic acid (E300). The yeast is over 98% of the Saf-Instant pack.
Emulsifier E491 is the same thing under two names. Sorbitan monostearate is E491. Saf-Instant and Mauripan are describing the same additive in different words.
Mauripan's origin is conflicted. One Shopee SG listing says AB Mauri Vietnam; another says Australian. Both are flagged on the page, not merged — the SG pack must settle it.
Most of this shelf could not be panelled. Bake King Instant Yeast is the FairPrice staple, but no ingredient section was retrieved for it. Fresh yeast and other instant brands are in seen-but-not-verified.

At a glance

Product	Pack size (as printed)	Type	First ingredient	Country of manufacture (as printed)
Saf-Instant Yeast — Red Label	not stated	Instant dry yeast	Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)	Mexico (per Lesaffre data sheet)
Mauripan Instant Dry Yeast	not stated	Instant dry yeast	Baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)	Vietnam / Australia — conflicted
Mauripan Light Yeast (Red Mouse)	not stated	Instant dry yeast	Yeast	Not stated

Panelled with verbatim lists: 3 products. Seen-but-not-verified: see the list below. No prices are shown: they change weekly and would go stale. This site compares ingredients only.

Saf-Instant Yeast — Red Label — manufacturer data sheet, SG pack not transcribed

Pack size: not stated · Made in: Mexico (per Lesaffre data sheet) (as printed)

Ingredients (Lesaffre Yeast Corporation technical data sheet): Yeast, sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid. Composition: Yeast (S. cerevisiae) over 98%, sorbitan monostearate 1%, ascorbic acid under 1%.

Instant dry yeast, vacuum-packed in foil pouches, for bagels, croissants, doughnuts, flat breads, pan breads and pizza crusts. Flag: manufacturer data sheet (US), not an SG pack transcription — the SG sachets and 500 g packs sold through Shopee SG and baking suppliers still need a pack photo. Country of origin as printed on the data sheet: Mexico. That is the US data sheet's origin; whether SG stock comes from the same plant is not verified. Instant Emulsifier E491

Mauripan Instant Dry Yeast — Shopee SG reseller listings, SG pack not transcribed

Pack size: not stated · Made in: Vietnam / Australia — conflicted (as printed)

Ingredients (Shopee SG listings, agreeing): Baker's Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), Emulsifier (491), Ascorbic Acid (300). A second listing gives: Dry Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), Emulsifier (E491 — Sorbitan monostearate).

Instant dry yeast that does not need activating before water; dosage 1–1.5% of flour weight. Halal certified. Flag: reseller listings on Shopee SG, not a retailer ingredient section or an SG pack photo — the list is consistent across sellers, but the SG pack still needs photographing. Origin conflict: one Shopee SG listing states 'Origin: AB MAURI Vietnam'; another Shopee SG listing sells it as 'AUSTRALIAN bread yeast — MAURIPAN'. Both are recorded; neither is treated as settled. Instant Halal Origin: conflicted

Mauripan Light Yeast (Red Mouse) — Shopee SG reseller listing, vague list

Pack size: not stated · Made in: not stated (as printed)

Ingredients (Shopee SG listing): Yeast, emulsifier, antioxidants.

Sold as a lighter yeast for low-sugar doughs (crispy-crust bread, pizza base). Flag: the list names the categories (emulsifier, antioxidants) without saying which ones — it is panelled exactly as given, not filled in from the standard Mauripan list, because the light variant may genuinely differ. SG pack photo needed. Country of manufacture: not stated. Instant Light

Seen but not verified — do not panel until checked

Bake King Instant Yeast (50 g) — listed at FairPrice, Halal; no FairPrice ingredient section retrieved in this pass. This is the gap that matters most on this page — it is the FairPrice staple.
RedMan instant / active dry yeast — Phoon Huat's house brand is listed in baking-supply channels; no SG ingredient list retrieved in this pass.
Saf-Instant Yeast — Gold Label — the gold label is the variant for sweet, high-sugar doughs; no SG list retrieved. It is a different product from the red label panelled above, not a size variant.
Mauripan Platinum Instant Dry Yeast — seen in a bakery-supply video alongside Mauripan and Saf-Instant; no list retrieved.
Fresh (compressed) yeast — sold in SG baking suppliers and some supermarkets; short shelf life, refrigerated. No SG pack list retrieved.
Active dry yeast (non-instant) — the older granulated form, which needs blooming in warm water first; no SG list retrieved in this pass.
Nutritional yeast, brewer's yeast, yeast extract (Marmite / Vegemite) and sourdough starter — different products: nutritional and brewer's yeast are inactive food yeasts, yeast extract is a spread, and starter is a live culture. None belongs on a baker's-yeast page; noted so they are not mistaken for missing rows.

Nutrition — what the numbers say

All figures in the sortable table are as sold, per 100 g (or per 100 ml for liquids, where the source gives per-100 ml). Click a column header to sort low to high; click again for high to low. Rows marked "not stated" always sort last — a missing figure is not zero. Per-serving-only figures are in a separate table below and are never sorted against per-100 g figures.

Salt and sodium: salt = sodium × 2.5. The table shows sodium as printed (in mg) with the salt equivalent in brackets. Sodium is not presented as salt, and salt is not presented as sodium.

Total vs added sugars: Singapore packs list total sugars, not added sugars. A total-sugars figure is never labelled here as "added sugar". Where a source states an added-sugars figure separately, it is noted. The ingredient list remains the evidence for added sugar versus naturally occurring sugars.

Open Food Facts is a community database and is flagged as secondary where used: the pack and the retailer nutrition section take precedence if they disagree. Figures marked "not stated" were not in the source retrieved; they are not estimated, borrowed from another variant, or copied across flavours. No Nutri-Grade is quoted or assigned on any page in this batch — no official Nutri-Grade was found printed on any of these products, and these are not drinks in the Nutri-Grade sense except where a drink is involved (none here).

No per-100 g nutrition panel was verified for any product on this page in this pass, and no per-serving panel was verified either. That is a gap, not a zero: these products are used in small quantities, but their panels still need retrieving from SG packs or retailer nutrition sections before publish. No per-100 g or per-serving nutrition panel was verified for any yeast on this page. A 2Brothers Foods listing for Mauripan dried yeast mentions a 'Typical analysis per 100 g' but gives no values in the retrieved text, so nothing is tabled. Yeast is used at about 1–1.5% of flour weight, so its nutrition is a small part of a loaf — but the panel still needs retrieving from an SG pack before publish.

Seen but not verified (nutrition): no per-100 g nutrition panel was verified in this pass for Saf-Instant Yeast — Red Label, Mauripan Instant Dry Yeast, Mauripan Light Yeast (Red Mouse). Their ingredient panels are unchanged; their nutrition figures are not estimated here.

How to read a yeast label — the jargon, in plain English

Instant dry yeast: Yeast dried into fine granules that can be mixed straight into flour — no blooming in water first. Saf-Instant and Mauripan are both instant yeasts.
Active dry yeast: Larger granules that must be dissolved ('bloomed') in warm water before use. Older form; not the same as instant, and not interchangeable spoon-for-spoon without adjusting.
Fresh / compressed yeast: Wet blocks of live yeast, refrigerated, short life. Stronger and faster than dried yeast, gram for gram, but perishable.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae: The species of yeast used for bread, beer and wine. On a label it may appear as 'yeast', 'baker's yeast' or by this Latin name — all three mean the same organism.
Sorbitan monostearate (E491): An emulsifier that keeps dried yeast granules free-flowing and helps them rehydrate evenly. About 1% of the Saf-Instant pack.
Ascorbic acid (E300): Vitamin C, used here as a dough conditioner / antioxidant in tiny amounts (under 1%). It is not there as a vitamin supplement.
Red label vs gold label (Saf-Instant): Red is the general-purpose instant yeast; gold is formulated for sweet doughs with a lot of sugar. Different products — check the label colour, not just the brand.

What this page is not

Not a health score, and not a "best" pick. The products above are different products, and this page does not rank them.
Not a taste test, and not a price comparison. Prices change weekly; ingredients change less often, but still change.
Not complete. The products in seen-but-not-verified are not yet panelled, for the verification reasons given, not hidden.

Sources and method

Checked 12 November 2026 from: Lesaffre Yeast Corporation technical data sheet (SAF Instant Yeast — Red Label: ingredient statement 'Yeast, sorbitan monostearate, ascorbic acid'; composition yeast over 98%, sorbitan monostearate 1%, ascorbic acid under 1%; country of origin Mexico); Shopee SG reseller listings for Mauripan Instant Dry Yeast (ingredients: Baker's Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), Emulsifier (491), Ascorbic Acid (300); and Dry Yeast, Emulsifier E491 Sorbitan monostearate; origin AB Mauri Vietnam on one listing, 'AUSTRALIAN bread yeast' on another) and Mauripan Light Yeast / Red Mouse (Yeast, emulsifier, antioxidants); 2Brothers Foods (Mauripan Dried Yeast 500 g — ingredients 'yeast, emulsifier E491', nutrition heading with no values retrieved); FairPrice listings (Bake King Instant Yeast 50 g — no ingredient section retrieved). Cold Storage publishes no ingredient list on any product page, so its shelf could not be panelled from its site. Full per-fact source list is in the accompanying research notes. Nutrition: no panel was verified for any product on this page; nothing is estimated. Where a full pack list could not be verified, the product is in seen-but-not-verified instead of being panelled.