It's baker's yeast, killed and dried. Heating the cells stops them fermenting, so nooch can't grow candida or leaven bread ¹. What's left is the cell's own pantry: about 8 grams of complete protein per two tablespoons, plus thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and B6.

Yeast can't make B12; only bacteria can. So unfortified nooch has none. The B12 on a fortified label is cyanocobalamin sprayed on after drying, the same form and dose a cheap supplement gives ^{2 3}. On the shelf, fortified flagships run over 700% of the daily value and "premium" unfortified lines sit at zero, in near-identical bags ².

The gap it fills is real. Among plant-forward eaters who don't supplement, B12 deficiency runs from 11% to 90% of vegans, highest in lifelong vegans and pregnancy ^{4 5}. It banks only if you eat it most days; a sprinkle on Tuesday doesn't cover Friday.

The cold-fighting pitch on the front is weaker. The yeast beta-glucan trials that cut colds used purified capsules at hundreds of milligrams, not the food ⁶. Europe's regulator twice rejected the food-form immune claim ⁷. Buy nooch for the taste and B-vitamins; don't pay extra for the cold-season promise.

If you were quietly low on B12, the first three or four weeks of steady intake lift the floor on your afternoons. Brain fog you'd been blaming on the day eases; the sore edges of the tongue settle; the low mood that crept in over years just stops being there ⁴. In the kitchen, the salt shaker comes down on its own once nooch is the finishing move, because the dishes already taste done. Over a decade, staying in range keeps a plant-forward eater out of the group who develop irreversible nerve and spinal-cord damage from years of unnoticed deficiency ⁵.