12/12/00

Contacts:
Larry Johnson, Center for Crop Utilization Research, (515) 294-4365
Tong Wang, Food Science and Human Nutrition, (515) 294-5448
Melea Reicks Licht, Agriculture Communications, (515) 294-2957

RESEARCHERS ARE PREPARING SOYBEANS FOR THE FINAL FRONTIER

Editor's Note: These images are available in higher resolutions. Please contact the Agriculture Communications contact listed above for high-res versions. Larry Johnson and Tong Wang display a poster of various olive oils from foreign farms. They hope the new soybean processing system they developed will help soybean producers in Iowa create an on-farm processed soy oil market similar to that of Italy's olive oil industry. Photo by Dan Burden, Center for Crops Utilization Research   Tong Wang and Larry Johnson demonstrate the mini soybean mill they developed to create soy oil and meal during long space flights or on producers' farms. Photo by Dan Burden, Center for Crops Utilization Research

AMES, Iowa -- Researchers at Iowa State University are preparing to process soybeans in the final frontier by creating a new inexpensive mill. This process could be used to create soy oil and meal on the farm or in space. This system would enable producers to process new products on their farms, or for astronauts to feed themselves during long flights in space. Larry Johnson, professor of food science and human nutrition and director of the Center for Crops Utilization Research, and Tong Wang, associate professor of food science and human nutrition, have been working on the project for two years. The project is supported by the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board and the NASA Food Technology Commercial Space Center at ISU. In conventional soy-oil processing there are four steps involved: de-gumming, neutralization, bleaching and deodorization. In the process Johnson and Wang are developing oil neutralized without the use of chemicals. Wang also says that since the oil would be marketed as unique and natural, color and odor may not need to be treated, so the conventional steps of bleaching and deodorization may not be necessary. The process also uses natural settling, instead of costly equipment to de-gum the oil. This type of system is sometimes referred to as a "mini mill." The process could be an important addition to future space travel that could span years. On such flights, astronauts will need to grow some of their food -- including soybeans, which have been identified by NASA as a suitable crop for growing in space. However, a processing method is needed that can turn the soybeans into edible food. The process Wang and Johnson are working on may fit this need. "NASA needs a very simple means of processing soybeans into edible oil and meal that can be used for soymilk, frying oil and texturized vegetable protein, which is used as a meat substitute or extender," Wang says. NASA also was attracted to this processing system because it could be used for other crops like peanuts or wheat, she adds. For earth dwellers, the researchers' vision is to help initiate a gourmet soybean oil market in Iowa similar to the olive oil industry of Italy and Greece. New value-added uses for soy meal also would be created in this type of industry. Unlike crude olive oil, crude soybean oil is inedible. It must be further refined. So Johnson and Wang are working on a process that would be inexpensive and small enough for producers to use on their farms. "Tong and I have a vision of using this process to create specialty oils that have improved nutrition, better cooking traits or other characteristics that consumers desire. Some of these would come from new soybean varieties, such as those that produce low-saturated fat products and those that produce oils that are more stable, which help your potato chips last longer. Both of those varieties were developed or partially developed here at Iowa State," Johnson said.

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