USSEC organized a soy bakery workshop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in November 2014. 25 local participants gave the thumbs up for the hands-on sessions that showed the value of adding U.S. full fat and defatted soy flour to baked goods.
The three-day workshop given by professional chef Jill Sandique included a one-day pre-trial on November 17, 2014, followed by a training session for 25 local participants at Interflour Vietnam at VũngTàu city, located about 95 kilometers (59 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City and an in-house demonstration at the Banh My Tuoi Bread Company in Ho Chi Minh City.

An accomplished culinary personality and trainer in the Philippines, Chef Jill showed participants how the incorporation of soy flour into baked goods promotes water absorption and therefore dough viscosity, better shape retention, a more uniform textured batter, and overall more economical and tasty products.
Participants evaluated the workshop favorably in terms of raising their understanding and appreciation of soy flour as a new bakery ingredient.  Some of the key advantages of soy flour demonstrated at the workshop were the higher dough yield, superior nutritional and economic benefits, longer shelf life and all-round better quality, flavor and texture of baked goods.
The participants included food technologists, bakery owners, managers and chefs from some of Vietnam’s largest bakery and retail chains, such as ABC, Savoure, Breadtalk, Givral, Big C, Lamour and Paris Baguette.  Several participants mentioned plans to introduce U.S. soy flour in special baked products for the coming Lunar New Year or Tet holidays in February, the largest festive celebration in Vietnam.
Plans for a follow-up workshop will focus on showcasing soy flour as an egg replacement in recipes.  A local distributor, the National Products Inc. (NPI), applauded the professional involvement of USSEC and Chef Jill as providing the right approach to promoting and developing the market for soy flour.  Through the demonstrations, users (bakers) could see and taste for themselves the superior quality aspects of U.S. soy flour products.
The soy bakery workshop is part of USSEC Southeast Asia’s High Value U.S. Soy Utilization Program spearheaded by USSEC Technical Director – Human Nutrition Yeong Boon Yee to showcase the functionality of U.S. full-fat and defatted soy flour to the pastry and bakery businesses in Southeast Asia.  A similar soy bakery workshop will also be conducted in Indonesia in February 2015. The program and workshops are jointly managed by USSEC SEA’s soy food team comprised of Dady Maskar (Indonesia), Yaowaluck Boonsong (Thailand) and Nguyen Ngan Hanh (Vietnam), with support and idea contributions by the country managers in Southeast Asia.