Soy Protein - Essential Additive in Food Industry

Additives are always inevitably used in the production process of the food industry. Soy protein is widely used in meat products, such as fish balls, fried chicken nuggets, as well as in vegetarian products and dairy products.

Soy protein is a plant protein. The amino acid composition of soy protein is similar to that of milk protein. In terms of nutritional value, it is equivalent to animal protein. In terms of genetic structure, it is also the closest to human amino acids, so it is the most nutritious plant protein.
Soy protein products include soy protein powder and textured soy protein.

Powdered soy protein products are rich in soy protein obtained by defatting, removing or partially removing carbohydrates from soybeans. Depending on the protein content, they are divided into three types: soy flour, soy protein concentrate and soy protein isolate.

Texturized soy protein is a product with a meat-like organizational structure obtained by extrusion and cooking of powdered soy protein products as raw materials. Depending on the protein content, there are two types: textured soy protein flour and textured soy protein concentrate. It comes in different forms such as granules, blocks, flakes, and filaments, and is of different shades of yellow-brown. Its network structure is arranged in a directional manner to form elastic and tough fiber bundles or layers, which makes it taste similar to meat muscle tissue when eaten.

Soy protein can be widely used in meat products (such as meatballs, meat patties, etc.) and imitation meat products to improve the nutritional structure of finished products and reduce production costs. 

The water retention of soybean protein plays an important role in the production of meat products, especially its ability to absorb water during the processing of minced meat. It can not only retain the juice of the raw meat, but also increase the moisture of the minced meat. The taste and flavor of the product are improved, while the yield of the product is also increased.

Meat products containing soy protein form a gel structure when heated. This characteristic can improve the hardness, elasticity, flakyness and texture of meat products, and has a significant effect on the water retention and chewiness of the product. Gel formation is affected by a variety of factors, including heating time, temperature, and concentration of the soy protein solution. Utilizing the emulsifying properties of soybean protein, water and oil can form a relatively stable network structure, so that the water and oil in cooked meat products will not escape at will. Reduce water and oil leakage during storage and cooking.

Therefore, many large food processing companies choose soy protein as an additive, especially for pre-prepared foods, such as frozen fried chicken nuggets, fish balls, etc.