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Soy beefs up developing counties’ nutrition

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Soybean farmers are helping to provide people in developing counties more protein for their diets.

The World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH), supported by the Soybean Checkoff and American Soybean Association, works with food supply chain companies to incorporate cost-effective protein alternatives.

Executive Director Jim Hershey says the program has accelerated adoption of soy foods in Central America and other parts of the developing world. He tells Brownfield in those regions people can’t afford meat, milk and eggs, but they can afford soy. Hershey says one of the more nontraditional markets they’ve expanded into is Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We started to introduce soy proteins, soy flours, textured soy, isolated soy protein—these are value added soy products from the U.S.—and we would introduce those to food companies in Africa who never thought of using them before.”

Hershey says WISHH shows food companies how to incorporate soy into local products. One example of this is combining soy flour with wheat flour.  “The soy flour, in relatively small qualities, actually increases the size of the batch of dough which allows the bakers to sell more loaves for a similar amount of money.”

He says the partnership helps not only create more products, but also provides consumers with more nutrient dense meals.

AUDIO: Interview with Jim Hershey (7:01 mp3):

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