Heat inactivation kinetics of the two Trypsin inhibitors during high-temperature-short-time processing of soymilk

Heat treatment of soymilk was studied in the conventional batch boiling process and under High Temperature-Short Time (HTST) conditions. Reduction in total trypsin inhibitor was assayed enzymatically, and individual inhibitors, the Kunitz and the Bowman-Birk inhibitor, were assayed by ELISA technique. Standard first-order reaction kinetics and thermodynamics were applicable for inactivation, and results indicated that the mechanism was not protein unfolding, because entropy changes were zero or negative. The two inhibitors were inactivated at the same rate around 137°C. Therefore, a simple first-order kinetic model which gave a good, slightly conservative estimate of residual anti-trypsin activity under HTST conditions could be established.