Soybean Research

Market and technology intelligence transfer centre for the agri-food industry
Dr. John Michaelides, Guelph Food Technology Centre

The Guelph Food Technology Centre has undertaken new activities in the area of marketing and technology information intelligence. This pilot project involves the sourcing of information on marketing and technology from around the world and making it available to the Agri-Food industry in Ontario and Canada. The project will provide regular information to the industry in the form of specific reports as well as other communication means such as bulletins, newsletters and seminars. In addition specific companies will be targeted when an appropriate technology or marketing information is sourced to provide them with the information and make the connection with the technology provider.

Our investigations so far indicate that the market for soy foods and ingredients is well developed and is expected to continue to grow. The growth may not be as spectacular as it has been in the past few years but soy will continue to find its way into many new product categories. It is more and more becoming a mainstream category than a niche market.

However it faces stiff competition from many other foods that are continuously being introduced and claim to have multiple health benefits. The term “Superfoods,” although it includes soy, contains many other foods that can easily compete with soy in the healthier foods market. Recent market reports indicate that prebiotics, probiotics and antioxidants will continue to grow while ingredients with heart health benefits are not expected to do as well. This may have an effect on the soyfoods market as soy protein health claims in the US are more related to heart health.

The science of the heart health benefits of soy is also being challenged and this may have a negative effect on the market growth. Some market analysts predict that the heart health benefits will give way to gut health as more information on prebiotics and probiotics and such products appear in the market.

However, the advantage of soy ingredients is not only health benefits but their usability as functional ingredients to replace other expensive ingredients in food products. The technology both from the production of new soy ingredients and the applications in new products has seen some innovation especially in the area of the extraction and isolation of components such as specific functional proteins, isoflavones and other phytochemicals. The continued improvement of technologies such as microgrinding and nanotechnology is resulting in soy ingredients that are more versatile and will find applications in many different food systems.

Specific soybean varieties are being developed and available or are approaching availability that possess traits such as higher isoflavone content or more stable and healthier functional oils. Ingredients from these varieties will continue to boost growth in soy utilization.