IOWA SOYBEAN SUPPLEMENT -- 1998

Contacts:
Walt Fehr, Agronomy, (515) 294-6865
Cheryll Reitmeier, Food Science & Human Nutrition, (515) 294-4325
Brian Meyer, Agriculture Information, (515) 294-0706

LESS BEANINESS MAY MEAN MORE BUSINESS FOR SOYBEAN GROWERS

AMES, Iowa -- Drinking soy milk triggers some rather unflattering adjectives from American taste testers: Grassy. Painty. Green.

Iowa State University researchers are toning down the flavor of soybeans so that soy milk, tofu and other soy foods suit more Americans' taste buds.

Soybean breeder Walt Fehr crossed Japanese soybeans with Iowa varieties. The Japanese beans lacked three lipoxygenase enzymes that are responsible for beany flavor. ISU released the first lipoxygenase-free soybean varieties in the United States, and seed companies grew them for the first time in 1997.

A team of ISU researchers has been evaluating the flavor of food products made with oil and protein from the new beans. They include soy milk, tofu, bread, meat products and protein drinks.

Less beaniness may mean more business. "These new beans may open new markets for soy foods," said food scientist Cheryll Reitmeier. "If we make the flavor more appealing to Americans, they may be willing to try more soy products."

"We've seen the most significant improvement with soy milk," said Reitmeier. "Some people who have wanted to drink it but couldn't stand the taste may now be able to." Last fall nearly 300 visitors to ISU's Agronomy Day agreed, after comparing lipoxygenase-free soy milk and regular soy milk.

This summer the researchers will make meatless burgers from texturized soy concentrate, which is similar to material used commercially. They also hope to pinpoint what consumers really mean when they say soy products taste "beany." "We're doing taste tests with soy milk in which people must choose exact descriptions of taste and aroma they consider beany," Reitmeier said.

While work continues in the lab, another project will grow and process enough lipoxygenase-free soybeans so that food companies can try large-scale testing. This summer, soybean producers in southwest Iowa are growing the soybeans on 650 acres. Seeds for the project were purchased by the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board.

"The harvested soybeans will be crushed and processed at a new facility being built by the Crestland Cooperative in Creston," said Fehr. "The facility is unique in that it's the only one in the country capable of capturing all the protein from the soybeans and turning them into soy flakes." The soy flakes, which are the raw material for producing foods containing soy protein, will be made available to food companies for testing.

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