STERILIZED AND HUSKED SOYBEANS AND PROCESS FOR PRDOUCING STERILIZED WHOLE FAT SOYBEAN FLOUR

摘要

It is intended to provide sterilized and husked soybeans having a bacterial count of 300 cells/g or less and a process for producing sufficiently sterilized whole fat soybean flours with the use of these sterilized and husked soybeans. The sterilized whole fat soybean flours include a product which is prepared by deodorizing soybeans without injuring the effective components (water-soluble proteins, etc.) characteristic to soybeans and inactivating enzymes inhibiting digestion and thus has a high digestion/absorption efficiency, a product in which the enzymes remain alive, and a product in which all enzymes have been inactivated. The above process comprises: (a) the selection step of separating foreign matters from starting soybeans to give selected soybeans; (b) the husking step of separating germ and husk from the selected soybeans to give sterilized and husked soybeans; (c) the cooking step of cooking the sterilized and husked soybeans using hot steam to thereby deodorize the beans and inactivate the enzymes inhibiting digestion; (d) the drying step of drying the sterilized and husked soybeans thus cooked until the moisture content attains a definite level; (d) the milling step of milling the sterilized and husked soybeans thus dried; and (f) the sieving step of sieving the sterilized and husked soybeans thus milled to give a soybean flour having a definite grain size or below.