Working Together to Better Nourish and Protect the Planet
With the strength of experience and diversity, Lesaffre North America works with customers, partners, and researchers to find ever more relevant answers to the needs of the baking industry that meet the challenges of a changing planet.
- Passion
- Respect
- Trust
- Entrepreneurship
- Humility
Good for Bakers
Lesaffre North America is a trusted partner to bakers around the continent, working to make the art of bread-making more productive, creative, and inspiring. From an at-home kitchen to an industrial-scale baking plant, we provide yeast and ingredient solutions that scale.
Making the best use of resources is vital for bread-making, and we continuously work toward the most efficient ways to reduce or eliminate waste and optimize baking processes. We support bakeries of all sizes with our Baking Center™ network, making our expertise available to customers in the form of technical assistance, product and process development, and training.
Good for Consumers
The pleasure of good bread is like nothing else. It’s rediscovering childhood tastes, savoring authentic flavors, colors, and textures, and continuing the legacy of cultural bread-making practices. Moreover, bread provides the protein, vitamins, and minerals needed to stay well.
We are committed to providing healthy ingredients that can be adapted to lifestyle needs or dietary requirements. Through our international offerings to our clean label, organic, non-GMO, and gluten-free options, our products meet the growing consumer demand for better baking. We ensure the quality and safety of all our ingredients through taking great care with our raw materials, processes, and traceability.
of bread in the world is baked with Lesaffre products
Working together to better nourish and protect the planet.
Good for the Planet
Think globally, act locally. This mantra can be seen throughout our entire company, from how and where we source our ingredients to ensuring we act in sustainable, ethical ways. The Lesaffre Group is committed to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for quality education, clean water and sanitation, sustainable consumption and production, and climate action.
In 2050, more than 9 billion people will need to be fed without spoiling or damaging our planet’s resources. To do so, we will continue research into the power of microorganisms and fermentation, as well as increasing our offerings of natural and organic ingredients.
Our History
Two Ends of the World.
One Mission.
It’s 1853 in northern France. Two farmers’ sons pair up to revolutionize yeast and Lesaffre Group was born.
Fast forward 30 years and across the Atlantic Ocean. Three German immigrants partner with a local businessman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to capitalize on the ever-growing popularity of yeast. They became known as Red Star Yeast Company.
It would take more than another 100 years for the two companies to join forces. In 2001, a partnership was formed, and Lesaffre acquired Red Star Yeast Company.
Over the years, Lesaffre and Red Star Yeast Company expanded beyond the best in yeast, developing a vast array of baking ingredients that improve efficiency, costs, and outcomes.
Today, Lesaffre and Red Star are recognized throughout North America—and the world—for their superior quality, innovation, and unparalleled technical support.
Lesaffre is More Than Yeast
Full Line of Baking Ingredients
For almost two centuries, Lesaffre has provided the world’s best yeast. That expertise evolved to include every aspect of the commercial baking process, and we sought to use that expertise to solve ever more challenges for our partners and clients. This seeking has led us to expand our product line to include solutions within extended shelf life, taste and flavor, and clean label and organic. At the heart of Lesaffre is innovation in fermentation; we believe the beneficial microorganisms and ingredients derived from fermentations is one of the most promising answers to nourish a growing and demanding population. This innovation has led us to become a key global player in fermentation, and we continue to push our understanding of, and technological capabilities in, this highly sustainable and healthy field.
A Lifetime of Baking and Beyond
The Lesaffre Group is a key global player in baking, food taste and pleasure, healthcare, and industrial biotechnology. Our family history spans over 170 years and in over 50 countries and lives each day through our more than 11,000 employees.
Lesaffre Group Family
With fermentation at the heart of its business, Lesaffre is a leader in furthering biotechnological advances for a healthier and more sustainable future for all. We believe in the incredible potential of microorganisms in baking, taste and food pleasure, nutrition, health, and industrial biotechnology as the greatest means to better nourish and protect the planet.
