Compositional characteristics of protein ingredients prepared from high‐sucrose/low‐stachyose soybeans

High‐sucrose/low‐stachyose (HS/LS) soybeans contained lower total concentrations of free sugars (13.3%), less stachyose (0.7%), and more galactinol (0.7%) (galactopyranosylmyo‐inositol) than the control normal soybeans (14.9, 5.1, and 0.2%, respectively). A low‐fiber soybean protein concentrate (LFSPC) process was developed, which is especially suited to HS/LS soybeans, by which defatted soy flour is merely extracted with alkali to remove fiber and then neutralized and dried to produce the protein‐rich soluble fraction. Two different pH values (7.5 and 8.5) were used in extracting protein, and these LFSPC were compared with traditional ethanol‐washed soy protein concentrate (EWSPC) and soy protein isolate (SPI) prepared from both normal and HS/LS soybeans. The LFSPC had slightly lower yields of solids and protein (∼70 and ∼81%, respectively) than conventional FWSPC (∼77 and ∼93%, respectively) but much higher than conventional SPI (∼42 and ∼70%, respectively). The LFSPC prepared from HS/LS soybeans contained significantly (P<0.05) more protein (∼66% protein content) than LFSPC prepared from normal soybeans (∼63%). Total isoflavone contents of the LFSPC (∼12 μmol/g) were significantly higher than for EWSPC (∼1.5 Ìmol/g) or SPI (∼10 μmol/g). The LFSPC prepared from HS/LS soybeans contained higher sugar contents (∼15%) than either traditional EWSPC (∼2.5%) or SPI (∼1.5%); but the sums of stachyose and raffinose were only ∼1% for the LFSPC compared with ∼1% for EWSPC and 0.5% for SPI prepared from normal soybeans.