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New generation of soy ingredients and soyfoods: An overview |
K. LIU, Monsanto Co., 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd., O3D, Saint Louis, MO 63167 Soyfoods industry is now a faster growing segment within the U.S. food industry. Some major food companies are entering this business while many new soyfood companies are starting up. One major driving force has been the recent medical discovery about the role of soy in preventing and treating many chronic diseases and in maintaining woman health. Advancement in food processing and crop breeding technology is another key driving force. Although many traditional soyfoods have been consumed in China and some other countries in Far East for thousands of years, their acceptance in the rest of world is still limited. Consequently, there have been on-going efforts to develop new soy ingredients that food industry can easily apply with and new soyfoods that local consumers are familiar with. Soy ingredients generally include soy flour, concentrate, isolate and textured protein. In recent years, with advance in technology and human creativity, the quality of these products has been upgraded with respect to functional properties, flavor profile, product specialty, and application ranges. More importantly, many new soy ingredients are emerging, including products like UniCell Soybeans, Soyfibe-S, soy flakes, very fine soy flour, soymilk powder, and purified individual soy phytochemical. Many of these products are made from whole beans. There is also a new way of using soy ingredients, as evidenced by using whole-fat soy flour in making soymilk, tofu and other products. With respect to new soyfoods, there are countless products in the market, since almost all local foods can now be made or enriched with soy. Among the popular ones found in the US market are meat alternatives, dairy alternatives, soy beverages, marinated tofu, soy butter, candy bars, tofu spreads, and etc. It is no doubt that all these efforts will lead to increased consumption of soy as food around the world and help consumers to reap the health benefits of soy on a regular basis.
Session 2, Developing new generation soy ingredients and soyfoods
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