FoodNavigator, France
06-29-07
Roasted soybean targets 'beany-free' snacks
By Lorraine Heller
6/29/2007 - A roasted soybean, made from a newly-available soybean variety,
claims to allow snack manufacturers to develop products with less of a beany
taste.
Start-up soy ingredient firm Central Iowa Soy says it is the only company to be
selling the Triple Null low-lypoxygenase soybean, developed by scientists at
Iowa State University's Department of Agronomy.
According to the company's general manager Larry Thomsen, the bean, which is
currently undergoing taste tests, is particularly suited for snack products targeting
consumers who want the benefits of soybeans without the beany taste.
Lipoxygenase isozymes, which are present in regular soybeans, produce offflavors by hydroperoxidation of fatty acids and by interaction with protein in
flours, concentrates and isolates.
The undesirable flavors are characterized as beany, grassy, painty, astringent
and bitter, and reduce acceptance of soy products by many consumers who
prefer a bland flavor in these products.
Normal mature soybean seeds contain three lipoxygenase isozymes important
for flavor - hence the informal tag - Triple Null - given to the lipoxygenase-free
variety.
Developed by cross-breeding, Triple Null is non-GMO, said Central Iowa Soy.
The firm has signed research agreements with Iowa State University, where Dr
Walt Fehr and his team are conducting consumer taste trials with the roasted
bean. Fehr has already conducted extensive research on the variety's sensory
and flavor characteristics, and has co-authored a study published in a 1998 issue
of the Journal of Food Science on the bean's performance in soymilk and tofu.
The goal, says Thomsen, is for the latest round of tests to be completed by
December this year, after which Central Iowa Soy will start marketing the oilroasted soybean product both directly to retail, and as an ingredient for the food
manufacturing industry.
The firm has already sent out trials to customers, and said it has received mixed
responses depending on the type of consumers companies are targeting.
"Asians still like their beany flavor, so we know this product is not for them. It's
mainly suited for consumers who tend to avoid soy because they don't like the
taste," said Thomsen.
"In the baking industry this is probably not going to be an issue, as soybeans
incorporated into baked goods tend to have their beany taste masked anyway.
The interest will probably come from the snack industry, where the product is
eaten more directly and so has a more intense taste," he told FoodNavigatorUSA.com.
The firm, which specializes in the manufacture of oil-roasted soybeans and soy
nuggets, uses a roasting process that exposes the beans to extreme heat and
then dries them down to 2-3 percent moisture. In the firm's regular soybean
products, this process eliminates some of the beany flavor, but to "nowhere near"
the same levels as achieved by using Triple Null beans, said Thomsen.
Central Iowa Soy, which is owned by farmer producers and land owners, has
only been in operation for around a year. The company currently has a capacity
of 3m lbs, and hopes by fiscal 2008 to achieve up to $3m in sales.
As well as oil-roasted soybeans, the firm produces oil-roasted sweet corn. It has
also signed additional agreements with Iowa State University to conduct research
on the taste and nutritional differences of dry-roasted, compared to oil-roasted,
soybeans.