Methods and compositions for producing epidermal growth factor (EGF) in soybean seeds featuring the use of transgenic soybean seeds expressing a seed-specific codon optimized gene encoding of the hEGF protein. Using these methods, the production of hEGF is sufficient and the activity of the EGF protein is comparable to commercially available EGF. The present invention shows the feasibility of using soybean seeds as a biofactory to produce therapeutic agents for a delivery platform, e.g., in a soymilk delivery platform.

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a strained fermented dairy product comprising the following successive steps: (a) providing a dairy product, (b) adding a lactase and a culture of bacteria comprising at least one strain of thermophilic lactic acid bacteria, with the provision that that it does not comprise any strain of mesophilic lactic acid bacteria, and fermenting the dairy product to obtain a fermented dairy product, and (c) separating a liquid whey from the fermented dairy product to obtain a strained fermented dairy product.

The present invention provides an effective means for improving the dispersibility of sediments or aggregates of microbial cells generated at the time of production and during storage of a food or beverage product containing microbial cells such as lactic acid bacteria. The present invention provides a beverage that contains microbial cells comprising (A) microbial cell powder and (B) polyglycerin fatty acid ester composed of polyglycerin having a polymerization degree of 3 to 10 and fatty acid having 10 to 18 carbon atoms connected by ester bonds.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an enzyme agent containing a transglutaminase having high reactivity at a low temperature and the use thereof. According to the present invention, provided is an enzyme agent containing, as an active ingredient, a transglutaminase consisting of an amino acid sequence having a sequence identity of 90% or more to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1.

The present invention relates to novel strains of Bifidobacteria, compositions comprising said bacteria and to methods for the preparation of such compositions.

The present invention relates to novel strains of Bifidobacteria, compositions comprising said bacteria and to methods for the preparation of such compositions.

Variants of mannanase, compositions including the variants, to methods for their production and to methods of using variants to degrade and modify mannan containing material.

Variants of chymosin with improved milk-clotting properties.

An equol-producing lactic acid bacteria-containing composition comprises, as an essential component thereof, a lactic acid bacterial strain belonging to the genus Lactococcus having an ability to utilize at least one daidzein compound selected from the group consisting of daidzein glycosides, daidzein, and dihydrodaidzein to produce equol. Such a composition is effective for the prevention and alleviation of malaise inclusive of climacteric disturbance in middle-aged and elderly women for which no effective prophylactic method or alleviating means has heretofore been available.

A method for making a milk product (e.g. a yogurt) comprising adding an effective amount of an N-linked glycosidase and/or an O-linked glycosidase to milk.