posted 6 months ago Number of slices to send: 
6
Optional 'thank-you' note:
Wikipedia:
"Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom".
"An amylase is an enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of starch into sugars. Amylase is present in the saliva of humans and some other mammals, where it begins the chemical process of digestion. Foods that contain large amounts of starch but little sugar, such as rice and potatoes, may acquire a slightly sweet taste as they are chewed because amylase degrades some of their starch into sugar. The pancreas and salivary gland make amylase (alpha amylase) to hydrolyse dietary starch into disaccharides and trisaccharides which are converted by other enzymes to glucose to supply the body with energy."
"Malt is a cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting""
"Malting grain develops the enzymes (α-amylase, β-amylase) required for modifying the grains' starches into various types of sugar, including monosaccharide glucose, disaccharide maltose, trisaccharide maltotriose, and higher sugars called maltodextrines. It also develops other enzymes, such as proteases, that break down the proteins in the grain into forms that can be used by yeast. "
It took me less than 5 minutes on an internet connection to find definitions. We live in an age where we swim in information.
There are 2 parts to this discussion: 1) is a fungal enzyme dangerous? Is it dangerous when it is fermented in a room with washable walls that has the name "lab" by a tall guy named Dave in a white lab coat who washes the stainless steel fermenter after every batch? Is it less dangerous when it is fermented a wooden hut in a barrel that gets added to every week by a sweet little old lady that calls you honey? It depends on the skill of the person and their attention to detail, not what they wear or the walls of the room. And as has already been pointed out, one of the fungi widely cultured to produce an array of products has been used for centuries in both wooden huts and tile walled laboratories.
2) Are the results of malting barley and fungal fermentation the same? Both produce the enzyme amylase. However, the side products of the biologic organisms can be different, and may be incompletely removed on the way to the final product. For a person with food sensitivities, the answer may actually be that they are not the same. Both aunts and my mother had sensitivities: seafood, anything derived from soy, strawberries, oranges, tomatoes. I learned to read labels to screen out a lot of products. The number of products with soy derivatives is mind-boggling, and yet they never blamed anyone else for their misfortune, they simply made their own mayonnaise and taught me how to make my own.
If you are a person with food sensitivities or allergies (they are NOT the same), reading labels every time is a smart self-protective strategy, but even then, things that are labeled the same may have important differences when the process used changes. The product may change at any time, and the only way to actually control that is to buy your own raw ingredients. Getting angry at the customer service representative making minimum wage will not change the product. You need to make the effort to find contact information for the higher management, and politely contact them with your story. Changes are not made out of malice, and they may be unaware of the needs of their customer base.
You may also want to explore the products from Bob's Red Mill. It appears that their management has a higher level of understanding about food sensitivities and allergies, and may be able to provide more or better information about all their ingredients.
