Soybeans are consumed mainly as animal feeds in Occidental countries, although plant-based foods (PBFs) began to draw attention recently. On the other hand, soybeans have taken a large part of diet in Japan, China, Korea, and other Asian counties for long time. Consequently, soybeans processing methods were innovated to serve a wide variety of menu of soy foods. Among them Tofu and Soy source are major and may be listed in your dictionary. PBF is expected to be a key food technology for sustainable economy reducing environmental load, however, PBF is not a brand-new idea, in other word, we have traditional PBFs. The “Gannmodoki” (=Fake canard meet) is a soybean processed food literally described in a shef’s guide book (Tofu Hyakuchin) in 1782 which is available at grocery stores in Japan now as was in Edo era. The “Koya Tofu”, a kind of freeze-dried Tofu with long history, can be stored at room temperature for six months. These technical approaches made soy foods convenient, eco-friendly, and delicious. The “Natto” is a fermented soybean food. A soil bacterium, Bacillus subtilis (natto) is involved in the fermentation process. Natto producing factories are highly automated and more than 500 thousand of packages (in total 15 tons) of natto are produced every day in one factory. Domestic consumption of natto is increasing these years and annual sales of natto is comparable to Soy source in Japan. One of the reasons to explain the market growth of natto is a health claim for natto. As Dr. Kobori shows in this session, oral uptake of natto probably give health benefit. In addition, although experimental evidence is not enough, gastrointestinal microflora may be conditioned by eating natto occasionally. Natto is made of whole grains of soybean and little by-products are produced during the fermentation. This is an important point considering waste control and contribution to SDGs. We have traditional PBFs widely or local produced in Japan. Tofu, Natto, and Gannmodoki are only examples of Japanese PBFs. In this oral presentation recent modifications of tradition PBFs including cultivation of new starter strain of B. subtilis (natto) will be presented. Consumer’s acceptance for flavors and texture sometimes prevents world-wide distribution of fermented foods. I also introduce some research activities to promote oversea export of natto.

Oriental Soybean Foods Processing and Fermentation, What’s new?

ACS Fall 2021

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