Characterization of Soymilk Prepared from Non-imbibed Soybean Seeds

Soymilk-like white opaque liquid was prepared from whole soybean seeds without imbibition by the nama-shibori method. The solid content of the resulting liquid (non-imbibed soymilk) increased with an increase in blender revolutions and milling time, becoming almost equivalent to that of standard soymilk (imbibed soymilk) after milling at 12,000 rpm or more for 8 min. The precipitate obtained from the non-imbibed soymilk was lower than that from imbibed soymilk after milling for 4 min; however, it was higher after milling for 8 min. The non-imbibed soymilk showed bimodal particle size distribution, differing from imbibed soymilk prepared by milling at 12,000 rpm or less, which showed a unimodal distribution. The findings suggest that non-imbibed soymilk is of slightly lower quality than imbibed soymilk prepared from imbibed soybean seeds, but overall the differences were considered minimal.