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Imagine the following food offerings. First, a menu: celery stuffed with soy cheese, soybean croquettes, cocoa with soymilk, apple pie with a soy crust, and soy macaroons. Secondly, in the frozen food aisle, soy cream for whipping. Lastly, among the breakfast cereals, corn-soy cereal. Though these might all sound like products offered in today's market, they provide an interesting glimpse of food history. The above menu was served in the Henry Ford Exhibit at the 1934 World's Fair. (Henry Ford was an early fan of soy.) The soy whipped cream was advertised in the May 1947 Family Circle magazine. Kellogg's advertised its new protein food -- Corn Soya cereal -- in the Feb. 19, 1951, issue of Life magazine. It makes you wonder... Is there really anything new with soy? Thankfully, today's world of soy is just getting started. Flavorfully speakingThose who remember the beany flavor of earlier soy products can well imagine the difficulties of producing, much less selling, a soy dessert topping in the 1940s. But today, soy no longer tastes unpleasant. While flavor technology and masking capabilities have improved, so have the base products. Soy continues to lose undesirable flavor, in part because of processing improvements. Kristen Heimerl, marketing manager, Cargill Health & Food Technologies, Wayzata, MN, credits the company's patented processing technology as one technique for producing clean-flavored soy isolates. "It's really a neutral flavor," she says. According to Russ Egbert, director of protein research, ADM, Decatur, IL: "If you get back to the whole bean and soy varieties that are clean in flavor, you can actually get improved quality. The products that we produce from soymilk are much easier to flavor than an isolate base. There aren't as many off-notes that you have to try to mask. That comes down to selection of the right bean. The differences between beans are huge." Typically, commodity beans are processed into soy protein. However, specific varieties go into the production of soymilk or tofu. For example, the L-Star hybrid soybean, produced by The American Soy and Tofu Corporation, Atlanta, has an exceptionally mild flavor. Through traditional breeding methods, Japan's National Agricultural Research Organization of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries developed this cultivar in 1990. Flavor and odor improvements come from removal of the three lipoxygenase isozymes, resulting in lower lipid dioxide in the processed soyfood. Soy flour produced from the L-Star soybean is comparable in flavor to wheat flour, though four times higher in protein. Additionally, L-Star provides higher protein and more vitamin E than most other U.S. and Asian soybean breeds. Minimally processedNowhere is flavor more important than in whole-bean products. As consumers look to less-processed foods in other sectors, such as in the return to whole grains, the soy industry is following suit. "What's new really, in some ways, is old," says Egbert. "We're looking at products that are processed less. The whole-bean area is going to continue to grow. We're moving back to more-basic foods. We're taking a look at soy as a whole and consuming the whole soybean instead of breaking it up into its constituent parts." Whole-soy powder is produced from dehulled soybeans. Like whole grains, whole soy has high fiber levels, but it also is rich in isoflavones, phytosterols and soy protein. Whole-soy powders might undergo various processing steps, such as heat treatment or enzyme hydrolysis. Heat treatment will reduce the beany flavor. Enzyme hydrolysis enhances biological activity by converting insoluble fiber to soluble fiber, by hydrolyzing fats into functional polyunsaturated fatty acids, and by transforming dormant isoflavones into bioactive forms. Treatments increase shelf life and colloidal stability. Soy beverages, frozen desserts, soy yogurt, soy cheese, soy ice cream and fermented-soy products can contain whole soy flour. Egbert notes that organic and natural are both growing trends for the entire food industry, but with varying levels of demand around the world. "The demands for organic soy seem to increase," he finds. "We're seeing decreased interest in non-GMO products here in the United States." The reason? They cost more. While U.S. interest in non-GMO is waning, it is still of concern in other parts of the world. Back to the basicsJust as the whole bean is becoming popular for its complete nourishing package, so are individual healthful components. Soy isoflavones are phytochemicals that offer specific biological effects. In fact, soybeans are the only food source that contains nutritionally significantly amounts of isoflavones. Yet just because soybeans are rich in isoflavones, that doesn't mean all soy products contain them. Isoflavones can be lost during processing. Isoflavones aren't water soluble, and they can be washed away during alcohol extraction. Soy sauce and soy oil do not contain isoflavones. Depending on how it is processed, soy protein concentrate might or might not contain significant amounts of isoflavones. Alcohol-washed soy protein concentrates contain 5% to 20% the isoflavone content of water-washed concentrates. Typically, soy flour has a very high concentration followed by soymilk, tofu, tempeh and miso. Soybeans contain two primary isoflavones: genistein and daidzein. A third isoflavone, glycitin is present in small amounts. Each of these isoflavones might occur in its beta-glycoside form. Additionally, an acetyl or malonyl group can attach at carbon six of any of the glycosides. Therefore, 12 different isoflavone isomers actually exist. The forms and amounts of each may vary in different soyfoods depending on the source of the beans and how they've been processed. Typically, genistein is found at higher levels in soyfoods than daidzein.
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