Specialty Soy
Powerful, Versatile Solutions for Animal and Human Nutrition
Specialized food, beverage and animal feed products require another level of ingredients—and specialty U.S. Soy products deliver the selection, performance and quality to set your formulations apart. Choose from a broad range of choices for your animal nutrition and soy foods products.
You’ll find excellent options for addressing specific protein needs in both animal performance and human diets, including:
- Soy protein concentrate
- Soy protein isolate
- Fermented soybean meal
- Soy lecithin
- Food grade soybeans
- Full fat soybeans
Specialty Soy in Animal Nutrition
Soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate and fermented soybean meal are great choices for your animal nutrition products. With higher protein and digestible amino acid concentrations, they are easy to incorporate into your formulations to target specific dietary needs in animals. Specialty soy products’ low anti-nutritional factors, oligosaccharides, good protein and energy digestibility make them particularly beneficial for younger animals’ diets.1 They are also increasingly popular in aquaculture nutrition.
Specialty Soy for Human Consumption
You can also use specialty protein ingredients to enrich your soy foods, both functionally and nutritionally. With choices including soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate and soy lecithin, these highly versatile ingredients not only add protein, they also provide solubility, gelation, hydration, emulsification, adhesion/cohesion and foaming. Leverage their benefits in powdered and liquid beverages, plant-based meat alternatives, cereals, snacks and other foods.2
The Benefits You Need to Know about Specialty U.S. Soy Products
Are you trying to decide which specialty soy products derived from U.S. Soy are right for your food or feed formulations? Take a deeper dive into the advantages each type—food grade soybeans, full fat soybeans, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, fermented soybean meal and soy lecithin—has to offer.
High-Quality, Consistent Specialty Soybean Options
Choose from food grade or full fat soybeans for your soy food and specialized animal feed formulations.
Soy Food Beans
While you can use any type of soybeans to make your soy foods, the U.S. produces soybeans specifically for the soy foods sector. Those beans may have higher protein, clear hilum, different seed size or other benefits that help you produce the highest-quality soy foods. U.S. soybeans provide a reliable, high-quality, consistent source of protein for your soy foods products and food formulations.
In 2024, the U.S. produced approximately 2 million acres of specialty soybeans that are destined for the soy foods sector. Approximately 764,000 of the specialty acres are in tofu bean production, and another 432,000 acres are for soy milk. Natto use is also on an upward trend.
Source (2024 study): What percent (%) of the U.S. non-GMO soy food soybeans purchased by your company are used for the following end-purposes?
High Oleic Soybeans
High oleic soybeans contain higher levels of oleic acid, with a fatty acid profile most similar to olive oil. The oil made from high oleic soybeans gives you significant benefits over standard oils, including longer shelf life, extended fry life and lower oxidation rates.4 High oleic soybeans are also predominately good fat, which contributes to heart health5 and improved oil performance for food service and food manufacturing applications.4 High oleic soybeans have also shown value in the animal feed sector, in particular for dairy rations.
Full Fat Soybeans
Whether you’re producing food or feed, full fat soybeans are a great protein source to easily incorporate into your formulations for extended stability and shelf life.
- Can be extruded or roasted for different applications
- Dry roasted or oil roasted for human consumption
- Entire oil component remains in product
- Enhanced energy content and dry matter in animal diets
- Good source of digestible amino acids and vitamin E
- Improved ingredient stability and shelf life
Versatile, Functional Specialty Soy
Soy Protein Concentrate
Soy protein concentrate, produced by further processing defatted soy flakes, is a well-known multi-functional ingredient. You can incorporate it into a wide variety of your feed and soy food formulations, including dairy alternatives, processed meat and meat substitutes.
- 60-70% protein on a moisture-free basis
- Available in powder, granular, re-fatted or lecithinated forms
- Excellent moisture retainer and emulsifier in processed meats
- High protein concentration makes it well suited for nutrient-dense animal diets
- Increasingly common replacement for fish meal in aquaculture diets
Soy Protein Isolate
Soy protein isolate is made from white flakes, which have been desolventized without direct moisture. Use this highly versatile ingredient for everything from foods and beverages to feed and aquaculture.
- At least 90% protein on a moisture-free basis
- Most commonly available in a dry, powdered form
- Frequently used in processed meats and baked goods
- Easily dispersible in water or milk
- Ideal for use in calf milk replacers and in liquid feed applications
- Excellent replacement for fish meal in aquaculture diets
Fermented Soybean Meal
For superior animal nutrition, fermented soybean meal may be the right choice for you. Its improved nutritional value comes from inoculating standard soybean meal with beneficial species of fungi and bacteria.
- 5-10% higher crude protein and amino acid concentration when compared to traditional soybean meal3
- Increased amino acid availability and protein concentration
- Improved protein digestibility
- Most commonly available in dry granulated or powdered forms
- Also sold as an ingredient in premixed diets
- Highly recommended for young animals
- Great potential as fish meal replacement
Soy Lecithin
Soy lecithin comes in a wide variety of functional forms, so you are sure to find the right fit for your food, beverage or feed. Soy lecithin is a mixture of phosphatides or phospholipids removed from crude soybean oil during the degumming process.
- Contains varying levels of neutral oil, tocopherols, complex sugars and pigments
- Similar fatty acid profile to soybean oil
- Available in liquid, granules or powders
- Dense source of energy
- Used in baked goods, dairy products, infant formulas and more
- Improves pellet performance, fat digestibility and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins in animal feed
Learn about the value and benefits of other U.S. Soy products, including soybean meal and soybean oil. And find more information in our Resource Library.
- Blavi, L., & Stein, H. H. (2018). Development and nutritional value of advanced soybean products used in diets for young pigs. Midwest Swine Nutrition Conference Proceedings, 29–32.
- https://sniglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/102023_HealthProGuide_Booklet_Final.pdf
- https://ussec.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Description-of-various-soy-products-Hooft-and-Bureau-AQ2021-20_0117.pdf
- https://ussec.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/HOSO-Frying-Brochure-2022.pdf
- Huth PJ, Fulgoni VL, 3rd, Larson BT. A systematic review of high-oleic vegetable oil substitutions for other fats and oils on cardiovascular disease risk factors: implications for novel high-oleic soybean oils. Adv Nutr. 2015;6(6):674-693.
