The application of cooking water abundant in phenolic compounds, obtained from cooking three types of beans (black soybean, yellow soybean and adzuki bean) and chestnut inner shell, to functional cheese product manufacturing was evaluated. Total phenolics in the cooking water were estimated by the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method and showed a wide range, from 24.4 to 761 µg/mL. The antioxidant activity of extracts was determined by DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging and oxygen radical antioxidant activity (ORAC) assays. Results of both antioxidant assays showed similar trends in total phenolic content; DPPH values ranged from 24.6 to 309.3 µmol TE/mL, while ORAC values ranged from 30.6 to 325 µmol TE/mL. High estimated residual phenolic values were observed for cheese curd made with chestnut inner shell, yellow soybean, adzuki bean and black soybean extracts; 96, 87.2, 84.9 and 82.3%, respectively.Keywords: cheese, soybean, adzuki, chestnuts, polyphenol IntroductionCommon edible plant seeds are among the world's most important foods. The soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) has been used as a food for more than 5,000 years. It is extensively consumed in the Asian diet as a variety of products, such as soymilk, tofu and various soy-based foods. Adzuki beans (Vigna angularis) and chestnuts (Castanea crenata) are also good nutrient sources (Tjahjadi et al., 1988;Miguelez et al., 2004;Hoshikawa, 1985), and are popular ingredients in many Asian desserts, especially in Japan.The first step in seed processing involves the processing of seeds in large amounts of water, generating water extracts that are usually discarded. However, these extracts contain many different functional compounds (Moure et al., 2001). Plant-derived polyphenolic compounds perform various biological functions including exerting anti-oxidative effects. Polyphenols are known as principal antioxidants in the human diet (Amarowicz et al., 2008;Havsteen, 2002;Pietta, 2000). Therefore, it is proposed that water extracts, as a byproduct of food processing, have value as an underutilized natural resource.However, in order to use the residual processing water for food or medical supplies, the polyphenols must be condensed from a large volume, which represents a costly process.Polyphenols are known to non-specifically bind various proteins.Some researchers have reported improvement of flavor, texture and anti-oxidant activity with the addition of plant and fruit extracts to dairy products such as cheese (Aly, 1997;Bandyopadhyay et al., 2008). These dairy products are considered to be a form of polyphenol-milk protein complexes (Arts, 2002;Jöbstl, et al., 2004;Papadopoulou et al., 2005).Recently, investigated the development of functional cheese and demonstrated that added phenolic compounds are highly recuperative in cheese curd, i.e., there is a minimal loss of phenolic compounds during the cheese-making process.The traditional cheese-making process using enzymatic coagulants does not require excessive heating or chemical substances...