Purpose

"Second generation" biotechnology products are expected to provide more benefits to consumers through enhancing the nutritional content of foods. These benefits are expected to result in greater consumer acceptance of agricultural biotechnology. However, such acceptance will not follow automatically from the development of new products. Consumers will need information to understand product benefits. Products must be designed that fit into consumer's diets and lifestyles.

Objective

The goal of this set of research and outreach activities is to analyze and communicate the benefits from biotechnology applications related to isoflavone content in soybeans. Isoflavones function as dietary estrogens that may be beneficial at certain levels for certain subpopulations. But, they can also be harmful at certain levels. Marketing the benefits of soy isoflavones will require careful targeting of products and product information. The project will address the potential benefits and information strategies needed for marketing such products.

Impact

The methods and tools developed under this project will provide models that can be used for understanding and communicating the benefits of other functional food components, as well as that for soybeans.