Soy Protein Powder water processed?

Question

My Soy Protein Powder from Trader's Joe says 'water processed' and no preservative or artificial flavors and colors. Its not organic though and I have read that if soy is not organic then a petroleum solvent called hexane might have been used to process soy! But since they say 'water processed' on the label I wonder if that means no hexane was used. Anybody know?

Answer 1

You would need to contact the company to know for sure. It does not guarantee that no hexane was used.

However, I'd say it could have used hexane. It's a two step process:

Step 1, defat the soy, for conventional (non organic) this is typically done with hexane as a solvent. What is left is soy concentrate. (Organic soy concentrate is separated mechanically, which is more expensive.)

Step 2, to get protein concentrate from the soy concentrate there are 3 commonly used options
a: Alcohol
b. Acid Wash
c. Hot water leaching.

So I think that "water processed" simply means that they used hot water leaching in step 2. It says nothing about what they used for step 1.