Purac, Givaudan and NIZO: Healthy and tasty soy drinks

Soy based foods have proven to be products that can meet current health requirements in a society with increasing over-eating and unhealthy diets. That is why a consortium of ingredient companies and research organizations embarked on a 3-year project for the development of healthy and tasty soy-based drinks.

Creating new beverages
Milk is a traditional source of calcium but is no longer consumed so much, while soft drinks simply contain too much sugar. The consortium, with Purac (acidifiers, calcium-fortifiers), Givaudan (flavours adapted for soy, sweet enhancers), NIZO (taste-texture and processing) and Utrecht University (physics and kinetics of protein aggregates), therefore focuses on developing the technology for production of soy beverages that are high in calcium and low in sugar. The creation of new textures in beverages that will fully exploit the taste-texture interactions is envisioned.

Prototype production
The first products have been developed by the consortium and produced in NIZO’s Application Centre at an industrially relevant scale. The prototype, called Constable, meets the taste, texture and shelf life properties needed for market testing. It is based on direct acidification and simple, continuous processing. Other characteristics are calcium enrichment with soluble calcium salts to the same level as milk and stability during the 6 month shelf life without protein sedimentation.

Product development
In the remaining time of the project other novel soy-based product concepts will be developed for instance soy and fruit juice combinations or soy–soy fibre beverages.

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