A Soy Product Case Study

There are various steps involved in functional food research and development that begin with identifying and characterizing a bioactive of interest, designing a specific food vehicle, optimizing the product, scaling up production for clinical trials, recruiting for and conducting a clinical trial, and addressing any challenges that occur. Most food science studies focus on the initial food development with little research on the requirements for effective functional food clinical studies or public health outcomes. Clinical trial results are often dependent on the dose of bioactive that a subject receives and it is of the utmost importance to ensure that each batch of scaled-up product delivers a comparable amount of bioactive. In the case of this study, the bioactive of interest was soy isoflavones delivered in the form of a soy soft pretzel snack. Various manufacturers were contacted for a contract manufacturing opportunity in order to mass-produce soy soft pretzels. Of three manufacturers that agreed to produce a test batch, one company has been able to recreate the sponge and dough process and a soy pretzel with an isoflavone concentration that is comparable to the bench top pretzel. Communications with this company will continue into the future as smaller “on-the-go” pretzel pieces are explored.