Marketing vegetable proteins— The need for a technical understanding of these new food ingredients

The future marketing of soy products is a challenging task. Agricultural research and production have primed the pump. A process and produce development effort has maintained the pressure. Food legislators are urgently trying to find formulae for accommodating this “Novel Food.” Never before have legislators worked so closely with an evolving technology at such an early phase in the deliberations. It is essential that the delivery should do justice to the skills that have fed it. Soy producers must accept responsibility as an integral part of the food industry. The manufacturing food industry has become highly sophisticated and cost conscious, creating requirements for a wide range of food functionalities we can provide. Assignment of a new food ingredient can only be made with a thorough insight into application; its cost structure, its process machinery, its quality parameters, its nutritional significance, etc. Without this, either the wrong choice will be made, or equally dangerous, the wrong claims will be made for the correct choice. The consequent disappointment would at best delay the acceptance of what the soy food ingredient industry is trying to do. Only a commitment to understanding the food industry will allow us to define these requirements correctly and establish for our products a rightful position which we can maintain.