The U.S. soy-based foods market has experienced slow growth in the past few years, with sales hovering around $5 billion. However, the industry is more nuanced than, and not as monolithic as, this overall number might suggest. Some soyfoods categories have done very well, and others have not. The major dichotomy within the industry is between soy as a characterizing ingredient and soy used as a functional ingredient in food products. That is, the difference is between soy ingredients that play a role in defining the product—as in the case of soymilk—or soy as an ingredient used to perform a specific function (binding agent, texturizer), such as in meat alternatives.
Even within food categories, this can be a tricky distinction. For example, soy protein is a functional ingredient for Clif Bar and Co., which doesn’t highlight its inclusion. But, soy also is a characterizing ingredient in Pharmavite LLC’s SoyJoy and MLO Inc./Genisoy products, which do highlight it.