Isoflavone Profiles and Kinetic Changes during Ultra‐High Temperature Processing of Soymilk

Isoflavone profile is greatly affected by heating process. However, kinetic analyses of isoflavone conversion and degradation using a continuous industry processing method have never been characterized. In this study, Proto soybean was soaked and blanched at 80 °C for 2 min and then processed into soymilk, which underwent UHT (ultra‐high temperature) at 135 to 150 °C for 10 to 50 s with a pilot plant‐scale Microthermics processor. The isoflavone profile was determined at different time/temperature combinations. The results showed that all isoflavone forms exhibited distinct changing patterns over time. In the soymilk under UHT conditions, the degradation (disappearance) of malonyldaizin and malonylgenistin exhibited first‐order kinetics with activation energies of 59 and 84 kj/mole, respectively. At all UHT temperatures, malonylgenistin showed higher rate constants than malonyldaidzin. However, malonylglycitin changed irregularly under these UHT temperatures. The increase of genistin, daidzin, glycitein and acetlydaidzin during heating demonstrated zero‐order kinetics and the rate constants increased with temperature except for the conditions of 145 to 150 °C for 50 s. Overall, genistein series exhibited higher stability than daidzein series. Under all UHT conditions, total isoflavone decreased from 12% to 24%.