Advances in grinding and milling technology – essentially a smart combination of grinding, shearing, and homogenization processes – means that better particle size reduction is now possible these smaller particles contribute to the perception of creaminess and that smooth mouthfeel. Incorporating okara in whole soya beverages is done early in the production process, with a focus on reducing the particle size of the fibres and carefully controlling the final texture and taste. “Processing this fibre in a specific, controlled way gives whole bean soya beverages their rich, creamy taste and smooth mouthfeel.” Straightforward to upgrade existing soya lines “The viscosity of whole bean soya beverages is also usually higher than traditional soya beverages due to this higher fibre content,” he adds. “Whole bean soya is more nutritious, and can be made into a high-fibre, high-protein, low-calorie plant-based beverage which is a healthier choice for consumers,” says Zhang. And in addition to having a higher fibre and protein content than regular or traditional soya beverages, as the production process uses the whole bean, it also generates zero okara waste, which reduces water waste too. These full-fibre beverages utilise 100% of the soya bean, meaning all dietary fibres from the bean are still present in the final beverage. The advantages of whole bean soyaĪll of this means there are numerous advantages – in terms of cost, waste and nutrition – of retaining okara in the end product, which is precisely the aim of whole soya beverages. With traditional extracted soya production, “about 60% of the protein makes it to the end product, with the remaining 40% staying in the okara – that means that 40% of the soya protein is just wasted when making soya beverages,” says Zhang. It was once common to sell okara as animal feed – particularly to pork farms – but advances in nutrition have rendered this use obsolete with the rise of formulated pig feed, okara is now considered inefficient.Īnd such waste isn’t just a question of time and money either – there’s a nutritional cost to simply throwing away so much okara. Producers must also pay a specialist waste dealer if there is no high-value okara processing factory nearby. And with an extremely high water content – 80% – special trucks or containers are required to prevent leakage. Secondly, being extremely perishable, it must be removed from production facilities as soon as possible. “So, if we consider China, where 14 billion litres of soya beverages are consumed per year, that means 2.8 billion kg okara is produced – that is a huge waste.” And the challenges for producers in dealing with such waste are numerous.įirstly, its volume is very large – the volume of okara produced is approximately 1/5 of the final soya product. “Typically, 1kg of dry soya beans will produce 2kg of okara and 10kg of final beverage,” says Zhang. So just how much waste is associated with soya beverages? For example, The European Union has set a target to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030, and to reduce food losses along food production and supply chains. Cut down on food wasteįood waste is in focus like never before. Instead, it’s usually simply treated as a waste product which, given the quantity produced during commercial production of soya products, can be costly and time-consuming to dispose of efficiently and sustainably. While very healthy – okara has many notable uses as a delicacy or additive in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cuisine – it is also highly perishable and susceptible to putrefaction (the process of rotting or decay in organic matter), giving it limited value as a standalone product or for further processing. “There is more than 10% of hard fibres present in soya beans,” says Tony Zhang, a GC PSE beverage category leader at Tetra Pak, “and these lead to a chalky or sandy taste if not removed.” With modern production, a separation or filtering process is employed to remove these fibres and other large particles (along with water and some of the protein) – the resulting by-product is okara, which consists of 80% water, 4% protein, and the remainder being fibre.
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