It is intended to improve the water-dispersibility of a soybean 7S protein
isolate, which is rich in soybean 7S globulin as compared with a
conventional soybean protein isolate, to thereby provide a beverage
thereof easy to drink or ameliorate the workability thereof in producing
processed food products such as dough products and tablets. The improved
soybean 7S protein isolate having high water-dispersibility can be
obtained by treating a soybean 7S protein fraction with an aqueous
ethanol solution and drying the same followed by, if necessary, grinding
or controlling the grain size. Further, the viscosity of an aqueous
dispersion of the above protein isolate can be lowered by acidifying the
same.