Tofu
Production

Regardless of the product or scale of the production, the production of tofu essentially consists of:

It is similar to the production of dairy cheese by coagulating the milk of dairy animals to form curds and pressing and aging the curds to form cheese. Typical tofu-making procedures are cleaning, soaking, grinding beans in water, filtering, boiling, coagulation, and pressing. There are also types, such as Japanese raw silken tofu, in which the curds are not pressed.

Coagulation of the protein and oil (emulsion) suspended in boiled soy milk is the most important step in the production of tofu. This process is accomplished with the aid of coagulants. Coagulation depends on complex interactions. There are many variables including the variety and percentage of protein in the soybeans used, slurry cooking temperature, coagulation temperature, and other factors.

Soybean proteins are mainly composed of 7S and 11S proteins. The negative surface charges on these globulins usually cause them to repel each other. Heating soy milk denatures the proteins and exposes hydrophobic groups normally oriented toward the inside of the globulin structure. Cations from coagulants bind the negatively charged groups. As the net charges of the protein molecules are neutralized, attractive hydrophobic interactions dominate over repulsive electrostatic charges, and protein aggregates are formed.

Two types of coagulants (salts and acids) are used commercially.
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