Whole edamame tofu successfully developed; Kaohsiung center welcomes inquiries about technology transfer

The Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (hereafter referred to as the Kaohsiung Station) has successfully developed whole-bean edamame tofu. The product fully preserves the fresh, sweet flavor and nutrition of edamame, showing a fresh emerald-green color that makes one's mouth water. This achievement not only opens up new uses for Taiwan's green gold - edamame - and raises its commercial value, but also gives consumers a healthy new choice.

Edamame is the not fully mature soybean, used as a vegetable in Taiwan. The Japanese call it edamame, and it is an essential side dish in daily meals. In Taiwan, edamame is cultivated and produced on a large scale with mechanization. Because of its excellent quality, its annual export value exceeds 2 billion yuan, making it a hot green-gold industry. In recent years, although it has faced fierce competition from Mainland China and Thailand, last year frozen edamame products still held a 42.2% market share in Japan, which is 1.65 and 1.54 times the products exported to Japan from China and Thailand respectively, and has ranked first in sales to Japan for 6 consecutive years.

In order to increase the consumption advantages of domestically produced edamame, the Kaohsiung Station, in addition to continuing to breed new varieties and help expand the domestic market, has also, in order to improve the utilization of edamame, used edamame kernels to develop edamame tofu processing technology, overcoming the obstacle of insufficient gel-forming protein in edamame, and perfectly preserving the fresh, sweet and emerald-green characteristics of edamame. The finished products include 2 types: edamame milk coagulated tofu and whole-bean edamame tofu. The products have a striking fresh green color, give off a faint bean fragrance, and have a moderate firmness. They are ideal as a side dish or snack, and are excellent functional foods for health and wellness.