Effects of near infrared treatment on electrophoretic patterns of soybean samples

Abstract

Soybean is an important source of proteins with high nutritional value and good functional properties in food applications. However, the utilization of soybean is limited because of the presence of undesirable components (e.g. trypsin inhibitor, lipoxygenase). Some food processing methods such as cooking, microwave and roasting, can be used to reduce the undesirable components. But the processing parameters must be designed carefully in order to avoid reductions in amounts of constituents having importance in nutrition and health. In recent years, there has been an increasing trend towards the utilization of infrared (IR) in the food industry due to its advantages. It is an efficient and energy saving food processing technology due to the characteristics such as thermal efficiency, fast heating rate/response time, wavelength and direct heat penetration into the product.