Research Progress of Enzymatic Removal of Soybean Protein Antigenicity

Soybean protein is the most widely applied vegetable protein in the food industry and animal nutrition because of its reasonable amino acid composition and good process ability. However,soy protein can cause allergenic reactions in humans and animals,and is recognized as one of eight major allergens. Many researches have been carried out on the elimination of antigenicity of soybean protein in world. The traditional heating treatment effect is not satisfactory. The main reason may be the existence of some sequence epitopes in soybean protein molecules. In recent years,enzymatic hydrolysis has been paid great attention. Results showed that trypsin and pepsin hydrolysis is not efficiency for the purpose,and the hydrolysis effect of alkaline protease,papain and flavoring protease is better but it was difficult to completely eliminate its antigenicity. In this paper,the research progress of enzymatic hydrolysis for eliminating the antigenicity of soybean protein was introduced. Some questions that the antigenicity was not completely eliminated with single enzyme and the conclusion obtained from different researchers was not same were analyzed and discussed.