Functional properties of soy protein hydrolysate produced from a continuous membrane reactor system

Two types of soy protein hydrolysates were produced by hydrolysis of isolated soy protein (ISP) with a combination of Alcalase and Flavourzyme in a continuous membrane system with 3000 and 30,000 daltons molecular-weight-cut-off (MWCO) membranes, respectively. Both hydrolysates were completely soluble over a pH range of 2–9. Their water-binding capacity increased 1.8–3.4 times at a water activity of 0.6–0.95 as compared to intact ISP. The antioxidant activity of ISP was remarkably enhanced by enzyme hydrolysis. The hydrolysate from the 30,000 daltons MWCO membrane had a much higher antioxidant activity than that from the 3000 daltons MWCO membrane. The results suggested that both selected enzymes and MWCO membrane governed the functional properties of protein hydrolysates. Long-term operation study showed that the membrane reactor system could maintain a steady production of ISP hydrolysate over 16 h.