[Soyfoods Symposium 1997 Home Page]

Reinventing the Meal with Soy and Food Service Success

By Sharon Davis
Family and Consumer Sciences Education, Consultant

Reinventing the Meal

I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today because I have good news. The information I am about to share with you could revolutionize the way you think about menu preparation.

Reinventing the meal to meet new guidelines and please students may sound like a daunting task, but it may be easier than you think...and it may be easier on your budget.

How School Lunch Shapes Up

Let's start by taking a look at what needs to be accomplished. These are the results of the study that sparked school meal reform. As you can see, the goal is to increase the share of carbohydrates and lower the percentage of fat in school lunches. Incidentally, much the same is true with the overall American diet...this is not unique to the school lunch program.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

With some relatively simple steps, we can reinvent meals and create menus that meet the 1995 dietary guidelines for Americans. In recent surveys conducted with foodservice directors, we asked what the greatest concerns with meeting new guidelines were, and the responses were similar...we want to cut fat and maintain costs.

The Soy Void

Those same surveys also tell us that foodservice directors want more information and training to incorporate soy into their meal plans successfully. In fact, 95 percent of directors said more training on soy would be helpful. That's why we're here. We'd like to tell you how soy can easily help cut the fat from your menus and allow you to keep serving your favorite entrees.

Filling the Void

Based on the Gallup findings, along with input from ASFSA, USDA, Penn State and an advisory panel of school foodservice directors, an information kit was developed. We'll frequently refer to recipes and menu plans from this kit today. The recipes and menu plans were developed, analyzed for nutritional content and cost considerations and student-tested by Penn State. We'll also review information kit materials on how to spec an order for soy-enhanced foods and easy directions for mixing soy concentrate with commodity ground beef.

Soy Steps Up to the Plate

The kit provides answers to foodservice director's greatest concerns--reducing fat and containing costs--about meeting new federal guidelines.

Whether you are using soy or not yet, there are three ways that soy can enhance your meals and make your job easier:

Nutritional Benefits

First of all, let's take a closer look at how soy can meet the lower fat objective. Soy protein can essentially serve as a fat reducer. Because it is fat and cholesterol-free, adding soy protein is a simple way to trim fat from favorite entrees. Soy is also the only vegetable protein that is equal in quality to animal protein and contains all essential amino acids.

Soy Protein is High-Quality Protein

New protein quality scoring methods recognized by the Food & Drug Administration further verify soy's protein quality. The Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Scoring System, called PDCAAS, is based on human amino acid requirements. But, the old scoring system, called Protein Efficiency Ratio, or PER, was based on rat requirements. As you can see with the new ratings, soy proteins have the same ratings as eggs or beef, outscore other legumes like kidney beans, and are complete proteins.

Cutting the Fat

A look at the numbers shows how soy protein stacks up with beef in a favorite recipe: spaghetti sauce. The standard meat sauce, made with 80 percent lean ground beef, derives 48 percent of its calories from fat. When we replace 30 percent of the beef with hydrated soy protein, the percent of calories from fat drops to only 39 percent.

Budget Benefits

Now, let's look at how this can benefit your budget, too. Lean beef typically costs around 95 cents per pound. By comparison, hydrated soy protein costs only 20 cents to 25 cents per pound. The more protein you blend in, the lower the cost. Keep in mind, however, if you choose to use commercially available food products enhanced with soy protein, the costs may not always be lower than products made from other protein sources.

Soy-Enhanced Menu Plan for K-6

Spaghetti sauce isn't the only item that can easily use soy protein. In fact, there are dozens of ways for incorporating soy. As you can see by viewing this sample weekly entree menu, soy-enhanced foods can offer the same variety with greater protein and less fat. (Note: the weekly menus that include these entrees, which are not included in the information kit, average less than 30% fat.)

Entree Cost Comparison

With this pork tetrazzini recipe, the 30% soy blend reduces costs per portion by 47%!

School Lunch Pilot Project

Now that you've cost effectively cut fat and lowered costs, you need to know that soy-enhanced foods taste good, too. Students, the ultimate litmus test, gave soyfoods a "thumb-up" in a recent pilot project by the United Soybean Board. Tests of soy-enhanced products were done in six geographically and economically diverse districts with 11,000 students.

Passing the Taste Test

More than 3,000 students ranked 17 soy-enhanced foods on a scale of one to five. More than half gave soy-enhanced foods the highest rating of 5 on a 5-point scale.

Passing the Test

An impressive 3 out of 4 students said they would eat soy-enhanced products again. Favorites among the students included the chicken breast sandwich, ham and cheese, chili cheese fries and chili cheese nachos, a hoagie sandwich and hot dogs.

Little Plate Waste

Plate waste surveys of 5,000 students found nearly two-thirds of them ate all of the soy-enhanced entree. The directors involved in the pilot were so pleased they all plan to use more soy-enhanced foods this year.

Reasons for Satisfaction

Their reasons for liking soy-enhanced meat products mirror what foodservice directors in the pilot project report: Students like the foods, and the products are lower in fat, juicier and economical.

Soy What?

When we talk about soy protein, we're not talking about the soy of the 1970s. Production and technology advances have resulted in new and improved soy protein products. There are three basic soy protein products: isolated soy protein, soy concentrates and soy flours/textured vegetable protein (TVP). Isolated soy protein is the most refined form of soy protein and improves juiciness when combined with textured soy concentrate. Soy concentrates take on the flavor of the foods they enhance. The two basic types of soy concentrates include textured concentrates and functional soy concentrates. Textured soy concentrates are 70 percent protein and range from 18 to 22 percent in dietary fiber. Textured soy concentrates give a "meaty" mouth feel and provide a firm texture to your products, remaining stable through cooking, freezing and thawing.

Functional soy concentrates bind water and fat, and are used for firmness and moisture control. They can be used interchangeably with isolated soy protein and are used at low levels.

Soy flours/TVP were introduced to school lunches years ago. Their protein content ranges from 40 to 54 percent. TVP, unlike newer concentrate products, contains soluble carbohydrates.

Technically TVP can be a variety of soy ingredients; however, it is commonly known as textured soy flour. Soy flour/TVP has also gone through changes throughout the years, creating a more consistent and higher-quality product.

How to Use Soy

If you are considering using soy, let me share with you some tips for finding and using it. New technologies have increased the number of options you have for working with soy. You may purchase high-quality soy protein products to add to ground meat. Or, if your prefer, you may purchase meat products that are already soy-enhanced. Another option may be to work with the processor that handles your commodity ground meat and have the soy protein blended in before delivery to you.

Where You'll Find Soy

You may be surprised at how many products can already be enhanced with these products to lower the fat and improve quality. The number of options is always expanding, too, and already includes such lunchtime favorites as chicken patties, pizza toppings, luncheon meats and peanut butter. This list shows some other products that can be enhanced with soy.

Commercial Purchases

Shopping commercially for finished products with soy protein is not difficult. First, be sure and review your district's policies to make sure they do not exclude soy protein. Then, you must specify the inclusion of soy protein or you cannot be sure it is in your meat products. Just add to your standard bid specifications the phrase, "Finished product shall contain soy protein (type), which meet Food and Consumer Service regulations." You can also specify which types of soy protein you want added in your bid specifications.

Commodity Program

If you have access to USDA-donated commodity meats, you can also add soy to reduce fat and still meet the demands of students. You submit bid specifications similar to the ones for finished products. Once you award a bid to a processor, they can get the meat directly from the state or from you. The meats are processed per your specifications and returned to your cold storage. As with commercial sales, your best bet is to specify the type of soy protein you want included. In both commercial and commodity program purchases, not specifying the type of soy protein may mean the processor will add soy flour, which was among the first soy protein ingredients to be introduced. If you have the opportunity, taste soy-enhanced products before ordering them to ensure that they meet sensory objectives.

Processors Provide

You should expect >from your processor several things in commodity program purchases: consistent quality, a performance bond that ensures the meat you send out is the meat you get back, formulations and nutritional analysis that proves your product specs are met, and a guarantee that the commodity's value is credited to your school foodservice program. You'll also need a donated food processing agreement, and product labels sent to Washington and USDA-inspected plant assurance.

Soy Preparation Methods

Whether or not you cook from scratch in your district, it's interesting to see how soy protein works. We are going to talk through an example that demonstrates how to enhance commodity ground beef. Start by hydrating the textured soy concentrate. It takes about 20 minutes. Next, mix in the soy isolate or functional concentrate. Now you're ready to mix this with the raw ground beef. Finally, cook the mixture, drain the grease, and use in recipes as usual. The meat's juice and fat will add flavor.

An alternate method is to hydrate the soy concentrate in broth instead of water. This will add flavor to the soy concentrate, giving you the option to add to meat you've already cooked and drained.

Tuna Salad

Although the techniques and soy protein formulations in prepared foods you buy may differ slightly, the net result is the same. You get a lower fat product that tastes great. Here's another example for tuna salad you can try that is in your kit and relatively easy. First, combine the TSC, isolated soy protein, water and lemon juice. Let stand 20 minutes. Then combine the tuna, mayonnaise, celery, salt and pepper. Add to the TSC/isolated soy protein mixture. Place about one ounce of the tuna mixture on sandwich rolls with tomato and lettuce. Calories per serving are 237 and the cost per portion is just 27 cents.

This recipe and all others included in the soy information kit were developed by the staff of Pennsylvania State University, the same team that developed the Team Nutrition recipes. Each recipe was tested by a student panel and reviewed by USDA. Nutritional and cost analysis are included.

USDA School Meal Guidelines

If you would like to use more soy-enhanced foods this year, be sure to review the USDA's regulations. Food-based menu planning requires a 30 percent soy protein to 70 percent meat protein ratio. With nutrient standard menu planning, you can use 100% soy products.

Soy Protein Product Information

The best way to get soy included in your lunch program is to work with your distributor. Whether you work with local or regional distributors or large companies you can encourage them to supply you with soy. We have included in your kit a flyer with information on obtaining soy that you can provide to your distributor. They can contact these soyfood manufacturers directly, or call our toll-free soy information number.

Reach Out:

These companies are also good sources for technical assistance. You can refer to the product and vendor section of your kit to review the steps on obtaining soy protein we covered earlier in this discussion. You can also call our 1-800-TALK-SOY number for additional information or if you'd like a training video to use with your staff.

Soy Summary

Perhaps we've whetted your appetite today for giving soy-enhanced meat products a try in your school lunch program. Soy is gaining popularity, so it is no longer an ingredient to hide. Once you've tested it successfully in your district, consider providing more information to faculty, parents, students and the local media on your success. For your convenience, we've provided in your kit a section on promotion and marketing to each of these groups. The materials provide suggestions on selling soy in your district.

Remember, when you team soy's nutrition and cost benefits with the high rate of student satisfaction, you come up with a winning combination!

[Soyfoods Symposium 1997 Home Page]