Tofu Industry

Tofu is the representative of the "bean curd" foods, the most popular type of
traditional soy protein products. Bean curd (Fu Fu or Tu Fu) has been prepared
and consumed in China for thousands of years and a written record of its
preparation dates from the second century B.C. Bean curd is a product by itself or
a starting material for a variety of related products, including fermented, salted,
smoked, dried and fried derivatives. Tofu is the Japanese name for bean curd
products.
Tofu has been made in the U.S.A since the beginning of the century, as an
ethnic food. Its consumption in the West increased rapidly since the 1970s, mainly
as a vegetarian alternative to meat and cheese or as a novel food by itself. The
development of a highly successful tofu-based all-vegetable ice-cream was a
significant factor in the recent growth of tofu production in the West. Today, a
variety of types and brands are available in most supermarkets.
Basic regular tofu is a white, essentially bland, soft product, closely
resembling pressed white milk curd. Its production starts with the preparation of
soymilk, as described in the previous chapter. Soybean is boiled, then cooled to
around 75o C. The thin protein-lipid film (surface scum) formed on the surface of
the milk is removed. A coagulant, which consists of a slurry of gypsum powder or
a solution of magnesium salts (nigari) is added. Curdling occurs. The free
supernatant whey is removed and the curd is transferred to perforated boxes and
pressed until a coherent block of curd is obtained. The curd is next immersed in
cold running water for several hours, with the purpose of cooling and leaching out
excess coagulant and entrapped whey solids. The block is cut to retail-size
portions and wrapped for marketing. Fresh tofu is stored, transported and sold as a
refrigerated perishable. The analogy between tofu production and cheese
manufacture is evident.
Tofu industry generally is a home industrial scale with the amount of labor
more or less 2-6. The process production on the tofu industry are simple and easy
to learn so the tofu industry can be done by anyone. The tofu industry also does
not require the production and can be implemented in the township area and city
in terms of the waste can be handled well and does not pollute the environment.
The tofu industry produce waste such pulp tofu and liquid waste harmless, but if
management is not good it will be dumped into the environment and can pollute
environment (Anonymous 2012).
A radically different method is used for the industrial production of "silken
tofu", a softer and more fragile type of bean curd. Here the production process
resembles yogurt rather than cheese manufacture. Soymilk wit a high content of
solids (10% instead of 5-6% in regular tofu) is heated to 100o C., then cooled to
room temperature. Glucono-delta-lactone (GDL) is added and the milk if filled
into the retail containers. After sealing, the filled containers are heated in a water
bath at 80-90o C for 40 to 60 minutes. At this temperature, GDL is transformed to
gluconic acid, which causes the protein to coagulate as a homogeneous gel, with
no whey separation.
Silken tofu prepared in this way is a pasteurized product which keeps well
for a few days under refrigeration. A diagram describing the manufacturing
process of regular and silken tofu is shown in Figure 1.

Fig 1. Tofu Manufacturing Process Diagram (Fukushima 1981)

A more advanced variation of the process described above is used for the
production of long shelf-life silken tofu, using UHT technology. Soymilk with
10% solids content is heated to 130o C and cooled to room temperature in
continuous aseptic fashion. The GDL solution is cold-sterilized by Millipore
filtration and injected into the stream of the sterilized, cooled soymilk. The
mixture is aseptically filled into plastic containers. The sealed containers are
subjected to heating, as described below. Aseptically filled tofu keeps well for
several months without refrigeration.
The production of regular tofu has also been modernized and adapted to
large scale manufacture. The first part of a tofu factory is, actually, a soymilk
plant. The second half comprises the coagulation, curd washing and finishing
operations. In addition to complete automated plants with high capacities, good
quality small-scale equipment is available for production at the local shop level.
Being composed of a step of extraction followed by a step of precipitation, the
manufacture of tofu is, in fact, similar to that of isolated soybean protein. Just as
in the case of ISP, a residue (okara) and a whey are produced. This may be an
inconvenience to small tofu plants which do not have the economy of scale
necessary to turn the okara into a saleable product, and to dispose properly of the
whey. In this case, the use of micromilled soy flour, soy protein concentrates and
isolates may be preferable to whole soybeans as starting materials.

REFERENCES
[Anonymous]. 2012. Industri Tahu: Bisnis Modal Kecil Dan Tahan Banting.
[Terhubung berkala]. http://www.agrotekno.net/2012/09/industri-tahu-bisnismodal-kecil-dan.html (28 December 2015)
Fukushima D. 1981. Soy Proteins for Foods Centering around Soy Sauce and
Tofu J. Amer Oil Chem. Soc. 58: 346.