Nutritional evaluation of meat–soya bean protein product blends

The nutritive value of protein of blends consisting of meat and soya bean protein products, which replaced either 20 or 40 % of protein of meat, were determined in rat feeding experiments. Protein efficiency ratio (PER) and net protein utilisation (NPU) were significantly lower (P<0.05) in blends containing either 20% protein from soya isolate or 40% protein from soya concentrate or soya flakes than blends containing sirloin only. However, there were no significant differences in PER and NPU when model meat (consisting of 70 and 30% protein from sirloin and connective tissue, respectively) was replaced by up to 20% protein from soya isolate or up to 40% protein from soya concentrate.