SOYMILK TASTE PREFERENCE

Today’s refrigerated soymilk comes in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavors to mute or minimize the characteristic soybean taste. Also, production processes have been improved to make unflavored soymilk taste more like regular milk. While all these methods improve the general taste or make the soy-based beverage more palatable, the underlying ‘pasty’ soybean taste remains, even if only to a lesser extent.

Prime Favorites, Inc., in Morris Plains, New Jersey has developed unique formulations and proprietary blends – "Natural Flavor Enhancer" (also known as PF1-2000) which, when combined with soy-based beverages, remove the unpleasant characteristic soybean taste inherent in all soy-based beverage. The formulations and blends have no characteristic taste or flavor of their own.

Marketing Solutions, Inc., Whippany, New Jersey, conducted a consumer taste test April 18, 2001 to compare a test vanilla-flavored soymilk with two commercial soymilk brands sold in mainstream supermarkets. The objective was to determine whether the addition of PF1-2000 to the test vanilla-flavored soymilk, would enhance the overall taste of soymilk.

Methodology

Fifty test subjects were recruited for the project, each having been previously interviewed by telephone as being regular consumers of soy-based products. The taste test was conducted in the Marketing Solutions, Inc. research facility. Test subjects were presented 4 products to taste in a sequential monadic format, rotated to avoid any bias. Products were only identified to respondents with code numbers. Two commercial products were compared to the test soymilk. The products were identified with codes:

W3 – refrigerated White Wave Silk Vanilla Soymilk

V5 – refrigerated VitaSoy Soymilk Drink, Vanilla Delite

C7 – refrigerated Test Soymilk Vanilla

C7 - Test Soymilk Vanilla was prepared with Soy Protein from North American Foods, LLC, Vanilla Flavor from Wynn Starr Company and "Natural Flavor Enhancer" from Prime Favorites, Inc.

TABLE 1. Fat and Soy Protein per serving

                       W3      V5       C7            

Fat	5%	3%	3.3%
Protein	6 gm	4 gm	6.5 gm

TABLE 2. SUMMARY OF RESULTS

The test soymilk was overwhelmingly preferred over the current commercial soymilk. The rating for the positive top 2 boxes reactions were significantly greater for the test soymilk C7 than the commercial soymilks, W3 and V5: C7 54% v W3 32% and C7 64% v V5 16%. The negative bottom 2 boxes reactions to the commercial soymilk W3 and V5 were significantly greater than the test soymilk C7: W3 26% v C7 06% and V5 40% v C7 08%.

		W3	C7	V5	C7
7	Like it very much	10%	18%	04%	20%
6	Like it moderately	22%	36%	12%	44%
5	Like it slightly	18%	34%	16%	24%
4	Neither like it nor dislike it	12%	04%	12%	02%
3	Dislike it slightly	16%	02%	16%	02%
2	Dislike it moderately	08%	02%	14%	02%
1	Dislike it very much	14%	04%	26%	06%
	(Base)	(50)	(50)	(50)	(50)
	Top 2 Box	32%	54%	16%	64%
	Bottom 2 Box	22%	06%	40%	08%
	(Mean)	4.18	5.41	3.22	5.48

The major reasons for liking the test product C7 were:

"It’s sweet; it’s pleasant; it has a good consistency."

The few negatives respondents expressed concerning the test soymilk C7 were:

"It’s too chalky; it’s too sweet."

Based on these findings, the test soymilk appears to have a significant advantage over the commercial soymilk in taste appeal.

The health benefits of soy-based products have been extensively studied and documented. The United States Food and Drug Administration has issued a model guideline for the soy protein health claim relative to the reduced risk of coronary heart disease: "25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease."

Nutrition notwithstanding, taste, comprising flavor, texture and consistency, emerges as the most important factor in determining the acceptance of a food or beverage product. Rather than disguising, masking, hiding or over compensating the soybean taste with sugars and gums, or flavors from syrups such as rice, oat and malt, Prime Favorites "Natural Flavor Enhancer" PF1-2000 was developed to remove the characteristic beany, pasty, green taste inherent in soy protein. Prime Favorites’ PF1-2000 neutralizes the unpleasant beany, green and astringent taste in soy protein itself. This treated soy protein is amenable to natural flavors such as citrus, fruits, berries, browns, herbals and toners (vanilla) in a soymilk formulation that gives an overall taste appeal in the finished product. This "Natural Flavor Enhancer" is effective in improving the flavor and texture over a broad spectrum of soy protein sources, including soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, soy flour and soymilk. Other properties of PF1-2000 are:

• No characteristic taste or flavor

• Neutral in taste (0.5% in unflavored water)

• Water soluble

• Recommended usage level <0.1% to 0.5%

• Amenable in most formulations and in high protein formulations

• Stable in heat processes and mixtures, including stabilizers, starch, other flours (rice, barley, oat), fats, minerals and vitamins

• Prevents staling of soy protein in the finished product, enhancing shelf life stability

These properties are equally effective in eliminating the "eggy" taste inherent in whey protein and dairy milk (casein) protein. PF1-2000 is flexible and easy to use in existing soy formulations.

The Marketing Solutions, Inc., consumer taste test reveals the effectiveness of the Prime Favorites "Natural Flavor Enhancer" in the test soymilk, C7, (Table 2) over two current commercial brands. The intensity of the negative reactions identified in the two commercial brands W3 and V5 are: ‘watery, chalky, unpleasant’ and appeared to overwhelm the respondents’ positive reactions. The negative (bottom 2 boxes, Table 2) reactions to W3 and V5 were significantly greater than the negative reactions to the test soymilk C7 (22% v 6%; 40% v 8%), while the positive (top 2 boxes, Table2) reactions to the test soymilk were significantly greater than the positive reactions to the W3 and V5 soymilk brands (54% v 32%; 64% v 16%). C7 displayed a significantly higher mean score than either W3 or V5 with a confidence level of 95%.

A provisional patent, specifying the formulations and blends, has been registered with the U. S. Patents and Trades Office.

For more information, contact Prime Favorites, Inc., at (973) 455-0600.