Thiokol Corporation

The Edlong Corporation

Lawrence A Johnson

Charles W Deyoe

William J Hoover

Hwei-mei Wen

This invention relates to a process for making a soybean-based milk analog or soymilk and food products prepared therefrom. The process involves the comminuting of whole soybeans having the hulls thereon, forming a slurry of the comminuted soybeans, simultaneously initiating the inactivation of trypsin inhibitor and lipoxygenase without fixing protein bodies or substantially denaturing the soybean protein, confining the heated slurry until the trypsin inhibitor activity is reduced to a desired value, cooling the slurry, and separating the hulls from the slurry to recover the desired product. The resulting soymilk is an aqueous preparation of the soybean which exhibits minimal destruction of essential amino acids, enhanced nutritional value, maximal retention, and thus increased yield of soybean solids including lipid and protein, optimal inactivation of trypsin inhibitors, reduced chemical browning, and enhanced flavor and palatability along with prolonged storage life. The process is characterized by the instantaneous heat transfer through direct infusion of steam into the slurry.

Soymilk process

Protein isolates are recovered from vegetable protein sources, such as for example sunflower meal, by extracting the meal with an alkali solution in the presence of an alkali metal borohydride, and then acid precipitating the resulting aqueous protein extract phase to produce a protein isolate. Typically, the alkali metal borohydride is employed in an amount of at least about 20 ppm, based on the combined weight of vegetable meal and alkali solution. Protein isolates produced by this process exhibit improved color, palatability and/or nutritional value, and comprise highly desirable additives for food products, animal foods, etc.

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College Station, TX, United States of America

Lawrence A Johnson