If Navam Hettiarachchy has her way, some valuable
new soybean products will be showing up all over your
grocer's shelves -- not to mention freezers, vegetable
bins and fruit counters.
They won't be food items. But that doesn't mean they
won't be edible.
Hettiarachchy, a University of Arkansas Division of
Agriculture food scientist, is exploring uses for soybeans
down at the pizza parlor, in packing crates and even the
walls of that new home you plan to build some day.
"The potential for value-added products from soybeans
is very great," Hettiarachchy says. "We're investigating
many functional and nutraceutical uses for soy products."
Nutraceutical uses include nutritional and pharmaceutical
products. In research supported by the Soybean Promotion
Board, she and her research team of graduate students
are studying novel ways of using the serviceable soybean.
Among the most flexible products Hettiarachchy is working
on are edible and biodegradable films that can be used
to seal in freshness and extend the shelf life of fruits,
nuts and vegetables.
"Discarded plastics don't degrade," she says. "The
U.S. is looking for biodegradable packing materials to
overcome landfill problems. Soybean-based films for wrapping
can be eaten or discarded. If we bury them in the soil,
they're gone in one to four weeks because microbes in
the soil consume them."
Such films can replace plastic used for packaging foods
or used as coatings on fresh produce. Hettiarachchy has
a study going to determine the effectiveness of coating
apples with soy films.
"Preliminary data shows that soy film extends the shelf
life of apples about a week. The soy protein coating can
be eaten with the apple or washed off," she says.
Hettiarachchy is particularly excited about a possible
use of soy in the pizza industry.
"Representatives of three pizza companies contacted
me at a recent meeting to express interest in preventing
moisture and color in pizza toppings from staining the
pizza dough," she says.
The exchange of moisture between the pizza dough and
toppings can cause color from the toppings to stain the
dough and make it soggy, especially during freezing. Consumers
like their dough to be white and crispy when served.
"I think I have an idea for developing a soy film,
placed between the dough and toppings, that will absorb
moisture without permitting color to pass through," she
says. "The film layer needs to melt away during cooking.
The pizza should taste like one without a soy protein
film.
"Pizza is a huge industry. Everyone wants pizza, from
children to senior citizens, so the potential value of
such a product is great."
She also is developing ways to use soy proteins to
deliver nutrients in food products. One project bonds
iron with soy protein as a means of delivering the iron
to the body.
"Iron deficiency is a very common problem, especially
among women, even in the United States," Hettiarachchy
says. "In developing countries, this is a major problem."
In promising laboratory tests -- conducted in test
tubes -- intestinal enzymes make 80 percent to 90 percent
of the iron available to the body. The next step, to test
the product on animals, will be conducted in collaboration
with Clemson University.
Hettiarachchy also is looking for ways of enriching
soy proteins and tofu with genistein -- an anti-cancer
agent.
She has also been directing a project to make biodegradable
foam from polymers in soy protein. The foam can be used
as packing material for shipping cartons or as filling
for cushions or pillows.
She has also been conducting a study to create adhesives
from soybeans for the wood industry.
"There is a demand for adhesives made without formaldehyde,
because of health concerns over the use of these substances
in construction," she says. "We have produced an adhesive
with enhanced water repellency that can be used for interior
or exterior wood products like particle board sheeting."
Soybeans Today January 1999
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Phone: 501-228-1268
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