Recent Trends for Enhancing the Diversity and Quality of Soybean Products

Soybean is one of the most important and valuable agricultural crops. Last decade it has risen to the top-traded commodities, with a multitude of uses. The high protein content of seeds is of primary importance for human food and animal feed. Fat-free soybean meal is a main low-cost source of protein for animal feeds and most pre- packaged meals, as well as a good source of protein for the human diet. Soybean is the leading oilseed crop produced and consumed worldwide. The soy vegetable oil is another valuable product of processing the soybean crop and a biofuel feedstock. This book presents new aspects and technologies for the applicability of soybean and soybean products in industry (human food, livestock feed, oil and biodiesel production, textile, medicine) as well as for future uses of some soybean sub-products. The contributions are organized in two sections considering soybean in aspects of food, nutrition and health and modern processing technologies. Each of the sections covers a wide range of topics. The authors are from many countries all over the world and this clearly shows that the soybean research and applications are of global significance. I am confident that book chapters contain useful information in many respects for broad audience and present ideas in help to researchers for advancing their fields.