Tofu

Description of product

Tofu ("soyaquak"/soy curd cheese), a traditional Asian food, is made from soya milk. The addition of calcium sulphate to soya milk achieves the same effect that lab-ferment has on cow milk: the protein flocculates and the liquid "whey" is separated from the white, quark-like pulp. Cleaned, rinsed and chopped into blocks it is offered as tofu.

• Tofu has little taste of its own and can be prepared in a variety of styles: raw or fried, as pizza or "brotbelag" (filling or topping of a slice of bread), in salads or as cream. Already packaged blocks of tofu are also available spiced or smoked.
• See also: soymilk, soy sauce, miso

Possible application of gene technology

Raw material: soybeans

• Soybeans: normally, internationally-traded raw materials of soya come, entirely or partially, from genetically modified plants. GM Soybeans are cultivated on large areas in the USA, Argentina and Brazil. From these countries, the EU annually imports more then thirteen million tons of soya and raw materials derived from soya.
• Some food companies exclusively process the conventional raw material of soya. However, a total separation based on all processing stages between conventional and GM soybeans is technically not possible. Therefore, also certified non-genetically modified raw materials may contain small amounts of GVO-parts. This may be as much as 0.9 per cent.
• Normally, traditional soya products like tofu are not extracted from the "mass-soya" production but from soybeans with specific, certified quality features. Those soybeans are cultivated and traded separately. Thus, significant proportions of genetically modified soybeans are not to be expected.

To support the coagulation of soymilk, the enzyme hexoseoxydase can be used.

Labelling: tofu must be labelled if it is made from genetically modified soybeans.