Achievements, Status and Challenges in Food Protein Processing

Summary

Searches for new crops for farmers, and an era of intensive chemurgic research funded by federal and private sources preceded development of concentrated soybean (Glycine max) food proteins in the United States. Food applications often followed earlier, allied, industrial extraction and utilization technologies. Development of new industrial uses stopped at the beginning of World War II, and was deterred by availability of lower-cost petroleum raw materials until rebirth of chemurgic research in the early 1990s. High values of edible oil and meals accelerated world production of soybeans, resulting in reliable supplies of feed and food proteins, but at the same time out-priced industrial uses except for paper coatings.

Concentrated forms of soy proteins (flour, concentrates and isolates) have replaced earlier animal-source proteins in compounded foods, primarily by providing desirable functionalities at lower cost. Acceptable thermoplastic vegetable proteins and improved thermosetting foams are still needed, but good progress has been made in developing emulsifying and water or oil absorption ingredients. Unfortunately, current vegetable food protein ingredient technology is still too expensive for many areas of the world that have little choice but to rely primarily on vegetable protein diets.