Make sure you read the last paragraph.

Ruth Scuderi
Westfield, MA
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New Soybean Good for Infant Formula

.c The Associated Press

 WASHINGTON (AP) -- A high-protein soybean bred for animal feed makes infant
formula made of soy more like mother's milk, government researchers say.

The high-protein soybean called Prolina ``turns out to have potential for
improving soy infant formulas,'' Floyd P. Horn, administrator of the
Agriculture Department's research service said in a release Wednesday.

Prolina was bred by Joseph Burton, a plant geneticist with the Agricultural
Research Service's laboratory in Raleigh, N.C.

Prolina has a high concentration of the amino acid cystine, which is a key
part of human breast milk, the research service said. Prolina has several
times more cystine than regular soybean varieties, said Prachuab Kwanyuen, a
chemist with the research service and a colleague of Burton's.

``Many formula manufacturers have been looking for a way to more closely match
mother's milk with a vegetable-based formula,'' Kwanyuen said. ``Prolina may
just be the formula for success.''

Prolina soybeans are also high in a special class of proteins -- 11S and 7S --
that make it easier to process the beans into a gel form for a fat-free
whipped cream made of soy or to blend them into a liquid emulsion like infant
formula, the research service said.

The research service said that breast feeding is usually preferable to formula
for most infants. But sometimes, an infant will have trouble digesting larger
proteins found in breast milk. So soy formula can be an alternative.