Chemistry, Texture, and Flavor of Soy

For centuries soy has served as an important and inexpensive source of high quality protein throughout the world, especially in Asia. Soybeans are now cultivated in large scale in North and South America, where they are mainly used for production of edible oil and animal feed. Part of the defatted soy meal by-products are refined into functional ingredients for inclusion into various processed food products, including meat, dairy, wheat, beverage and snack food products. Therefore, the consumption of soy has increased tremendously in the Western countries in the last thirty-forty years. More recent discoveries of a number of health benefits of soy have spurred a new wave of demand for soy foods, not only in Western countries, but also in those countries which traditionally consumed soy. Growth in soybean production and utilization is also occurring in developing countries to help meet nutritional needs of those populations. Despite the tremendous growth in the global consumption of soy, there are still many technological challenges that must be met to improve the food quality, nutritional and health promoting attributes of soy-containing foods. In particular, numerous flavor and textural challenges impact the quality and consumer acceptability of soy foods. These flavor and texture properties as well as the nutritional and health-promoting attributes are mainly determined by the chemistry and functionality of the chemical components of soy.

This book will serve as a platform for future scientific and technological studies leading to improvements in the quality and acceptability of soy foods. It is a culmination of a symposium titled "Chemistry, Texture and Flavor of Soy", which was sponsored by the Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society and held at the 236th ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, August 17-21, 2008. In this book, leading researchers cover the following topics as they relate to the quality of soy foods and ingredients: the chemistry of soy and soy components, including isolation and characterization of bioactives and functional ingredients/compounds, texture aspects of soy and soy ingredients, including processing, characterization and measurement by sensory and/or instrumental means, and flavor chemistry and analysis (sensory and instrumental) of soy and soy products/ingredients/components.

Keith R. Cadwallader is Professor of Food Chemistry in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois. He is Co-Director of the Illinois Center for Soy Foods.

Sam K.C. Chang is Professor of Food Science in the Department of Cereal and Food Sciences at North Dakota State University.