Soybean is one of the most important crops in Malawi. It consists of more than 36% protein, 30% carbohydrates, and excellent amounts of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. This makes it an appropriate ingredient for weaning foods complimenting carbohydrate dominated diets such as maize.  It also consists of 20% oil, which makes it an important crop for producing edible oil.

Soybean provides a supplementary source of income to smallholder farmers especially rural women. In Malawi soybean has a ready domestic market due to high demand for soybean and private sector interest, especially processors to support and enhance soybean production to meet local demand.

Corn-soy flour blend is one of the soy products that is nutritious and is mostly used as baby food due to its high amount of protein.

Milled soya flour

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials

• Soy beans
• Maize grains

• Oven
• Milling machine
• Packaging materials
• Sealing machine

Procedure for processing Corn-Soya flour blend

Step 1: clean and sort soy beans and maize grains to remove all impurities, discolored, moldy and insect infested grains. Sorting and cleaning helps to maintain product quality and safety thus complying with standards.

Step 2: Roast soy beans at 100⁰C for 20 minutes. Roasting improves digestibility of the soy, reduces anti-nutritional factors (trypsin inhibitor), and improves the flavour. Roasting can be done using a roaster, in an oven or on open fire until golden brown.

Step 3: Mix the roasted soybeans with maize grains in 1:4 ratio (1 kilogram of soybeans to 4 kilograms of maize or 1 cup of soybeans to 4 cups of maize grains).

Soya beans

Step 4: Mill the maize-soy mixture to flour using a milling machine.

Soya milling machine

Step 5: Package and seal in sterile containers

Packaged soya flour

Process map for Corn-Soy blend flour