Previous studies showed that early exposure to soy isoflavones resulted in improved bone mineral density (BMD) and bone quality that resulted in stronger bones in CD-1 mice. This study investigated whether the benefits to bone health are transferred to second generation (F2) females and if there are any adverse effects on reproductive health. First generation (F1) female CD-1 mice received subcutaneous injections of the isoflavones daidzein (DAI) and genistein (GEN) or corn oil from postnatal day (PND) 1 to 10 or 21. F1 and F2 treated-females experienced earlier pubertal onset and lengthened anogenital distance but only F1 had reduced fertility, histological abnormalities in the uterus and ovaries, and altered estrous cycling. F2 had higher BMD and stronger bones at 4 months of age. In conclusion, early life exposure to soy isoflavones compromise reproductive function but confer a transgenerational benefit to bone development in CD-1 mice.

Oxidation plays an important role in the basic processes of life, such as the production of energy and phagocytosis employed by the immune system. However, when an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants exists in vivo, oxidation can become uncontrolled and result in diseases such as arthritis, cancer, artherosclerosis, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Dietary antioxidants including polyphenolic compounds, proteins, and peptides have been identified as being physiologically functional foods capable of contributing to the restoration of this oxidant-antioxidant balance. The objective of this study was to explore the production of antioxidant soy peptides from a commercially available soy protein isolate (SPI) by enzymatic hydrolysis in a process similar to that occurring in the human digestive tract. In this study Archer-Daniels Midland SPI PRO-FAM 974 was used as a raw material for the production of antioxidant soy peptides. The digestion consisted of enzymatic digestion of the SPI (3.12 wt %) with pepsin (37ºC, pH 1.5) and/or pancreatin (40ºC, pH 7.8) either individually or sequentially. The enzyme concentration and digestion time for each enzyme was optimized using a 2^4 factorial experimental design to produce the greatest concentration of peptides quantified in PheGly equivalents by the OPA assay. A maximum peptide concentration of approximately 65 mM PheGly equivalents was achieved in the follow-up digests resulting from this factorial design model, using pepsin (0.15 g/L, 15 minutes) and pancreatin (4.5 g/L, 120 minutes) sequentially to digest the SPI. Fractionation of the peptides by sequential dead-end membrane ultrafiltration with molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO) of 3 kDa and 1 kDa was performed to produce peptide fractions with increased antioxidant capacity. The permeate flux as a function of time was fit to empirical models, revealing that the membrane fouling resulting in the permeate flux decline is largely reversible and most likely the result of cake filtration. Antioxidant capacity was quantified by the DPPH, FCR, and ORAC assays to determine the electron-donating and proton-donating capacities of the soy peptides. The electron-donating DPPH assay was not suitable to quantify the antioxidant capacity of the soy peptides due to poor peptide solubility in the assay media and sensitivity. The electron-donating FCR assay and the proton-donating ORAC assay were used to distinguish between the ultrafiltration and digestion conditions employed to produce the soy peptides and the antioxidant capacity was quantified in equivalence to the standard antioxidant Trolox. The soy peptide fraction with the greatest antioxidant capacity was produced by enzymatic digestion with pancreatin (4.5 g/L, 120 minutes) alone and had a molecular weight cut-off of between 3 kDa and 1 kDa. This fraction had an equivalent antioxidant capacity of approximately 190 mg Trolox/g sample in the ORAC assay and approximately 180 mg Trolox/g sample in the FCR assay. A preliminary linear model for the optimum digestion and ultrafiltration conditions for the production of antioxidant peptides with the greatest ORAC antioxidant capacity was also developed. The model includes a positive pancreatin digestion time term and a negative pepsin digestion time term. No ultrafiltration terms were found to be significant in this preliminary model, but a large constant term persisted. In conclusion, the enzymatic digestion of commercially available SPI with pancreatin and fractionated by ultrafiltration successfully produced a soy peptide fraction with increased antioxidant capacity.

The effects of the fortification of tortilla chips with mechanically expelled soy flour as well as baking and frying processes on the properties of tortilla chips were evaluated. Sensory characteristics, texture, thickness, color, protein and oil content were evaluated. Texture was measured by objective and subjective tests. Sensory properties were evaluated using a nine point hedonic scale. Soybeans (food grade Hartz) were mechanically expelled to obtain partially defatted soy flour of 6.7% final oil content. Dry masa flour (DMF) was replaced with 0, 10, 20 and 30% mechanically-expelled soy flour (MESF). The equilibrated tortilla was either fried in oil or baked in an air-impingement oven followed by convection oven drying. Overall, fried tortilla chips were harder and thicker than baked tortilla chips. Fried tortilla chips with 20 and 30% soy flour substitution required less force to break. In fried tortilla chips, as MESF increased, force and work levels decreased, where 20% MESF had the lowest force values. Thickness measurements of tortilla chips showed that as the thickness increased, the force and work also increased. Protein increased linearly in baked and fried tortilla chips where 30% resulted in the highest protein level. In fried tortilla chips, MESF fortification increased oil levels linearly as well. Baked tortilla chips were lighter than fried tortilla chips. In a consumer sensory evaluation, fried tortilla chips were preferred more than the baked ones. In fried tortilla chips, 20% had the highest sensory scores overall. Ten and 20% MESF fortification in fried tortilla chips were the most acceptable of all. In all treatments, regardless of type of processing, panelists could not detect any “beany” flavors in any of the samples. Therefore, dry extrusion followed by mechanical expelling proved successful in creating a suitable soy flour for tortilla chip production. MESF can be added at 10-30% levels in tortilla chips. Up to 20% would be recommended. Frying results in higher acceptability consumer scores over baking.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-187). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-187). Also available on the Internet.

Global trade and increasing food demand are important drivers of impacts in the water system across scales. This study coupled a spatially-explicit physical account of trade between Brazilian municipalities with a water footprint accounting model, in order to analyse water footprints of Brazilian soy produced for domestic and international consumption, and assess their relevance in the context of water scarcity and competing demands for water resources. The water footprints of Brazilian soy production were assessed for different levels of spatial-explicitness for comparison. The Swedish water footprints were analysed within this framework to illustrate the use of the methodology. As a result, temporal and geographical patterns of variability of water the footprints related to Brazilian soy production, attributed to different consumers in the global market, were identified. The study found the methodology to unveil important processes connected to economic and trade drivers, as well as to variability in climate and production yields. It was found that important regional variability was not considered or fully understood when accounting for water footprints as a national aggregate. Opportunities for improvement and further research were also discussed.

This dissertation focuses on identifying the heritage significances of the soy sauce made by Kowloon Soy Company Limited using the traditional sun-dried method in order to help preserve this time-honored practice that has become a rare sight in Hong Kong. The development of Kowloon Soy Company Limited is closely associated with the urbanization of Hong Kong. It represents how local traditional businesses are struggling to survive. Heritage conservation is about managing the change. Therefore, using Kowloon Soy Company Limited as a case study, this dissertation aims to identify the heritage significance of soy sauce production in Hong Kong in order to provide the groundwork for future exploration of ways to sustain the industry. It covers the history of Kowloon Soy Company Limited as well as its production of the soy sauce, how is it perceived and preservation challenges. The dissertation ends with a discussion on the contradiction of conserving the intangible cultural heritage – the question is whether an intangible cultural heritage, which is a living heritage, should be left to its natural development and demise without intervention? If not, then how should conservation be carried out? / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

published_or_final_version / Pharmacology / Master / Master of Philosophy

There is an increasing awareness in the food industry about the role that proper nutrition plays in maintaining health and preventing disease. Women especially have always been interested in nutrition and its impact on their well-being. This awareness has placed more pressure on the food industry to provide a greater variety of nutritious and wholesome products which has led to the development of a new field in the food industry, called functional foods. These are food products that apart from the micro- and macronutrients that it already provides have additional important physiologically active functions that enhance health. These active components, called phytochemicals (from plant sources) and zoochemicals (from animal sources) have changed the role of diet in health. Functional foods can, by nature or design, bridge the traditional gap between food and medicine and thereby provide consumers with the opportunity to become involved in their own health care. One of these functional foods that have been receiving increased attention and research is soy. Apart from other health benefits of soy, such as cholesterol reduction and bone strengthening, scientific evidence has shown that soy can be used as an alternative for hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The increased interest in the latter can be ascribed to the changed attitude of women, as well as evidence of the side effects of conventional hormone replacement therapies. Consumer research in the nutraceutical area is, however, still in its infancy stage. Objective: The main objective of this study was thus to assess South African consumers' opinion of the potential health benefits of soy and soy products as an alternative for HRT. To attain this main objective, the following specific objectives were stated: To determine, by means of a consumer questionnaire, the percentage of South African consumers who are aware of soy. To determine, by means of an attitude scale, the attitudinal disposition of South African consumers towards the potential health benefits of soy and soy products as an alternative for HRT. To determine South African consumers' opinions regarding the menopausal related health benefits of soy. To determine whether there is a relation between respondents who Eat/drink soy and their opinion of the potential health benefits of soy. To determine whether there is a relation between respondents who never use soy and their opinion of the bone strengthening benefit of soy. To determine whether there is a relation between respondents' opinion of the health benefits of soy and their opinions of soy as an alternative for HRT and reliever of menopausal symptoms, respectively. Methods: In this study, consumers' opinion regarding the health benefits of soy was evaluated using a questionnaire. Respondents were randomly selected from nine metropolitan, as well as rural areas in South Africa, representing the four main race groups, namely whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians. The total sample size of the metropolitan and rural subjects was 3001. A sub-dataset was created which included female respondents that have heard of soy before and were premenopausal (35-44 years) and post-menopausal (50-59 years) of age. Thus, the total number of respondents used for further statistical analyses was 825. The respondents expressed their opinions of the health benefits of soy on a five-point hedonic (Likert) scale which was adapted to a three-point scale for easier interpretation of the tables. Results: 1. Of the 3 001 respondents, 2 437 (80%) were aware of soy. 2. A mean attitudinal disposition score of 2.47 on a three-point scale indicated a neutral to positive attitudinal disposition of the South African consumer population towards the potential health benefits of soy and soy products as alternative for HRT. No practically significant differences were found between the mean values of each statement, which indicated that no specifically strong opinions were expressed between different races or between different age groups. 3. Of all the consumers surveyed and those who did express a specific opinion, 72% agreed that soy has many health benefits compared to only 7% who disagreed. Although 34% of South Africans expressed a positive opinion when asked if soy can be used as alternative for HRT, the majority (46%) of the population had a neutral opinion. Forty-two percent of the consumers who held an opinion regarding soy as reliever of menopausal symptoms were positive, 35% had a neutral opinion and 23% of South Africans did not agree that soy can relieve menopausal symptoms. 4. A relation, although not of practical significance, was found between respondents who eat/drink soy and their opinion of the health benefits of soy. Of the respondents who indicated that they eat/drink soy, the majority agreed that soy has many health benefits. The respondents who disagreed when asked if they eat/drink soy, still expressed an overall positive opinion when asked whether soy has many health benefits. 5. A relation, although not of practical significance, was found between respondents who never use soy and their opinion of the bone strengthening benefit of soy. Of those who indicated that they use soy, the majority agreed that soy has a bone strengthening benefit. On the contrary, only 43% of those who agreed that they never use soy were positive about the bone strengthening benefit of soy, whereas 37% held a neutral opinion and 20% expressed a negative opinion. 6. The relation between respondents' opinion of the overall health benefits of soy and their opinion of soy as alternative for HRT and reliever of menopausal symptoms was of practical significance. Of the respondents who did not agree that soy has many health benefits, the majority expressed a negative opinion of soy as an alternative for HRT. Of those who agreed that soy has many health benefits, 45% expressed a neutral opinion and 44% a positive opinion of soy as alternative for HRT. Almost half (47%) of the respondents who agreed that soy does have many health benefits, expressed a neutral opinion when asked if soy can relieve menopausal symptoms, whereas only 30% had a positive opinion in this regard. The majority (86%) of the respondents who disagreed that soy has many health benefits, also expressed a negative opinion of soy as reliever for menopausal symptoms Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that 80% of the South African consumer population are aware of soy and that South African consumers have a neutral to positive attitudinal disposition towards the potential health benefits of soy. Respondents did not express a particularly strong opinion regarding several health benefits of soy. It may be hypothesized that they are not informed well enough on the health benefits of soy as to take a stand and to form a definite opinion. Neither different race groups, nor pre- or post-menopausal women differ significantly in the frequency of their opinions, indicating that in this study, race and age did not have a practical significant influence on opinion of the health benefits of soy. Of all those surveyed and who did express a specific opinion, 72% agreed that soy has many health benefits, which is almost the same percentage (74%) as American consumers who perceive soy products as healthy as according to the United Soybean Board (USB) National Report (2003-2004:4). A survey by Adams (2001:433) reported that 71% of American consumers believed that plant-derived HRT have fewer risks and can thus be used as a safe alterative for conventional HRT. According to the results of the present study only 34% of South African consumers expressed a positive opinion when asked if soy can be used as an alternative for HRT. Insufficient evidence on the safety and efficacy of the potential health benefits of soy, as well as a lack of consumer education in South Africa, could be the reason for this uncertainty among XIV South African consumers. While only 26% of American consumers are aware that soy might relieve menopausal symptoms (USB National Report, 2003- 2004:4), results of the current study found that 42% of South Africans were of opinion that soy can relieve menopausal symptoms. A relation, although not of practical significance, was found between respondents who eat/drink soy and their opinion of the health benefits of soy. This can be an indication that whether or not the South African consumer population consume soy doesn't have an influence on their opinion of soy's health benefits in practice. The relation found between respondents who never use soy and their opinion of the bone strengthening benefit of soy were not of practical significance. This can be an indication that whether or not South Africans use soy does not influence their opinion of the bone strengthening benefit of soy in practice. Furthermore, a practically significant relation was found between respondents' opinion of the overall health benefits of soy and their opinion of soy as alternative for HRT and reliever of menopausal symptoms, respectively. Interestingly, respondents who expressed a positive opinion regarding the health benefits of soy did not have a convincingly positive opinion of soy as alternative for HRT and as reliever of menopausal symptoms. They expressed a more neutral opinion. As expected, consumers that were not of opinion that soy has certain health benefits, also disagreed when asked if soy can be used as an alternative for HRT or as reliever of menopausal symptoms. Although the causes for the respondents' opinion or uncertainty were not determined in this study, it can be hypothesised that it may be due to lack of standardisation of evidence on the safety and efficacy of alternative hormone replacement therapies. Further studies are still needed to determine the contributing factors which influence consumers' opinion or lack of opinion on soy. If consumers are not educated about the benefits and disadvantages of soy as alternative for HRT, they cannot make intelligent decisions and choices as to whether or not to use soy as alternative for HRT. / Thesis (M. Consumer Science)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Oxidation plays an important role in the basic processes of life, such as the production of energy and phagocytosis employed by the immune system. However, when an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants exists in vivo, oxidation can become uncontrolled and result in diseases such as arthritis, cancer, artherosclerosis, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Dietary antioxidants including polyphenolic compounds, proteins, and peptides have been identified as being physiologically functional foods capable of contributing to the restoration of this oxidant-antioxidant balance. The objective of this study was to explore the production of antioxidant soy peptides from a commercially available soy protein isolate (SPI) by enzymatic hydrolysis in a process similar to that occurring in the human digestive tract. In this study Archer-Daniels Midland SPI PRO-FAM 974 was used as a raw material for the production of antioxidant soy peptides. The digestion consisted of enzymatic digestion of the SPI (3.12 wt %) with pepsin (37ºC, pH 1.5) and/or pancreatin (40ºC, pH 7.8) either individually or sequentially. The enzyme concentration and digestion time for each enzyme was optimized using a 2^4 factorial experimental design to produce the greatest concentration of peptides quantified in PheGly equivalents by the OPA assay. A maximum peptide concentration of approximately 65 mM PheGly equivalents was achieved in the follow-up digests resulting from this factorial design model, using pepsin (0.15 g/L, 15 minutes) and pancreatin (4.5 g/L, 120 minutes) sequentially to digest the SPI. Fractionation of the peptides by sequential dead-end membrane ultrafiltration with molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO) of 3 kDa and 1 kDa was performed to produce peptide fractions with increased antioxidant capacity. The permeate flux as a function of time was fit to empirical models, revealing that the membrane fouling resulting in the permeate flux decline is largely reversible and most likely the result of cake filtration. Antioxidant capacity was quantified by the DPPH, FCR, and ORAC assays to determine the electron-donating and proton-donating capacities of the soy peptides. The electron-donating DPPH assay was not suitable to quantify the antioxidant capacity of the soy peptides due to poor peptide solubility in the assay media and sensitivity. The electron-donating FCR assay and the proton-donating ORAC assay were used to distinguish between the ultrafiltration and digestion conditions employed to produce the soy peptides and the antioxidant capacity was quantified in equivalence to the standard antioxidant Trolox. The soy peptide fraction with the greatest antioxidant capacity was produced by enzymatic digestion with pancreatin (4.5 g/L, 120 minutes) alone and had a molecular weight cut-off of between 3 kDa and 1 kDa. This fraction had an equivalent antioxidant capacity of approximately 190 mg Trolox/g sample in the ORAC assay and approximately 180 mg Trolox/g sample in the FCR assay. A preliminary linear model for the optimum digestion and ultrafiltration conditions for the production of antioxidant peptides with the greatest ORAC antioxidant capacity was also developed. The model includes a positive pancreatin digestion time term and a negative pepsin digestion time term. No ultrafiltration terms were found to be significant in this preliminary model, but a large constant term persisted. In conclusion, the enzymatic digestion of commercially available SPI with pancreatin and fractionated by ultrafiltration successfully produced a soy peptide fraction with increased antioxidant capacity.