Nutritional Improvement of Soy Flour Through Inactivation of Trypsin Inhibitors by Sodium Sulfite

Abstract
Treatment of raw soy flour at 75°C with 0.03M sodium sulfite for 1 hr completely inactivated trypsin inhibitors leaving no sulfite residues in the soy proteins. Rat feeding studies showed that the protein efficiency ratio (PER) increased from 1.55 for raw flour to 2.11 for heated flour and 2.49 for flour heated in the presence of sulfite. This nutritional improvement was accompanied by enhancement in in vivo nitrogen digestibilities. Pancreas weights were elevated in rats fed raw soy flour, but not in those consuming heated soy flour, with or without sodium sulfite. Knowledge of the factors that decrease the stability of potentially toxic trypsin inhibitors may be useful for improving the quality of certain foods.