A new technology that can double the soy content of baked goods and snacks, is being brought to market by healthcare firm BTG.
The technology, developed by the UK's Cohen Marketing Services (CMS), allows manufacturers to formulate soy into baked foods without losing the consistency and texture of the dough, says BTG.
The company is hoping to target food manufacturers increasingly under pressure to offer consumers healthier foods. Soy is the only ingredient with an established health claim in the UK, related to its cholesterol-lowering effect. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration allows the use of a healthclaim that products containing a specified amount of soy can help prevent cardiovascular disease.
In 2001, the market for soy in the UK, Germany, France,Italy and Holland was $1.4 billion (€1.23bn) and is one of the fastest growing sectors in the European food industry.
"Our first goal was to make a healthier tortilla chip. Wefurther developed this idea into a formulation that is scalable andallowsmanufacturers to produce a wide array of soy-based foods that consumersarealready familiar with," said Deborah Cohen of CMS, which creates applications for speciality grains in snacks and natural foods.She said the technology would helpfood manufacturers take advantage of the increasing demand for soy in themarket.
Anthony V. Lando, chief operating officer at BTG, added: "BTG was looking to build upon its success in bringing healthcaretechnologies to the marketplace as we have done with MRI, cholesterolassaytests, Campath, and BeneFIX. With the emergence of our soy dough technology, wearenow impacting the food and beverage markets with innovative functionalfoodand nutraceutical offerings."