Cereal Chem 41:173 - 180.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Tempeh: Nutritive Value in Relation to Processing.

A. K. Smith, J. J. Rackis, C. W. Hesseltine, M. Smith, D. J. Robbins, and A. N. Booth. Copyright 1964 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Tempeh, an Indonesian food of good flavor and texture, is made by fermenting soybeans with a species of Rhizopus. The fermented food is high in protein and unsaturated oil. Rats fed tempeh showed a small reduction in growth and protein efficiency compared with autoclaved and dehulled full-fat soybean meal. This reduction in nutritive value may not be serious when one considers the improved edibility of soybeans for human consumption by fermentation. Loss of solids and protein in dehulling, soaking, washing, and cooking of soybeans before fermentation did not reduce the nutritive value of either cotyledons, or full-fat grits (chips), used to make tempeh. Since pancreatic hypertrophy did not occur in rats fed tempeh, the heat used in normal preparation of tempeh is sufficient to destroy the factors in raw soybeans responsible for poor growth and pancreatic hypertrophy. Methionine supplementation of tempeh significantly increased rate of rat growth and protein efficiency values.