history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

1969. The number of employees grew from 352 in 1960 to
about 630 in 1970.
In 1937 K.S. Lo, the founder, who happened to be on
a business visit to Shanghai, attended a lecture by Julian
Arnold, then Trade Attache to the United States Embassy in
Nanking. The subject was “Soybean–The Cow of China.”
Lo left inspired to do something about the widespread
nutritional diseases then found in Hongkong. “He applied
to the government for a license to manufacture soymilk in
1938. He received such a discouraging and unfavorable reply
from the Sanitary Board that he was forced to give up his
plan. However, a year later, Dr. P.S. Selwyn Clarke took over
the chair of the Sanitary Board, and day by chance he came
across Lo’s application. He telephoned Lo and assured him
that he would issue him the necessary license.
“Lo was overjoyed and immediately went to raise a
modest capital of $18,000. He put up a small factory at
Causeway Bay and the plant was opened in March 1940 by
Sir Man-Kam Lo... Sales remained poor for the fi rst two
years. By the end of 1941, when the Pacifi c War broke out,
the Company was almost on the verge of bankruptcy. The
factory was occupied by the Japanese soon after Hongkong
fell and Lo left for Free China [Taiwan]. In Sept. 1945
he returned to Hongkong and production was restarted in
Nov. of that year.” Lo started to market his product as a
soft drink through soft drink outlets, instead of like milk.
Sales grew rapidly. By 1949 the company had accumulated
enough capital to buy a piece of land and build a new
factory in Aberdeen. In the meantime the company had also
acquired the Greenspot franchise. So in 1950, the Aberdeen
factory was opened and used for the bottling of Greenspot
while Vitasoy remained at the Causeway Bay factory. In
1952 the bottle was changed to a soft drink bottle that was
sterilized. Sales skyrocketed. In 1957 the company gave
up the Greenspot franchise and acquired the Pepsi Cola
bottling franchise. In 1962 a new 6-story, 300,000 square
foot factory was opened in Kowloon. In 1964 the company
invented a powdered soymilk. That year Lo was invited to
present a paper at the “International Symposium on Oilseed
Protein Foods” in Japan. His concepts caught the attention
of UNICEF and FAO, which had been trying to fi nd ways
of increasing protein consumption in developing countries.
A joint venture with Monsanto proved unsuccessful and
was terminated last year. Monsanto was given a license to
manufacture a powdered soymilk concentrate.
The company has created three new divisions. The
Packaged Foods Division will be introducing in the spring
a line of precooked foods which are ready for the table after
simply heating. They include Chow Fan, Bar-B-Q Spare
Rib, Dim Sum, etc. The Cheese Division will be launching
this year 3 types of soymilk-based cheese spreads: Chinese
Fu-Yu, European Blue Cheese, and English Cheddar. The
Extrusion Foods Division is developing a high-protein
weaning food, and hopes eventually to branch out into snack
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 110
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
foods and meat substitutes.
228. Schwarz, Richard W. 1970. John Harvey Kellogg,
M.D. Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Publishing Assoc.
256 p. Illust. Index. 22 cm. See p. 44, 120-23, 243. Also
published in 1970 by Andrews Univ. Press (Berrien Springs,
Michigan).
• Summary: This excellent biography of Dr. J.H. Kellogg
was originally written as a 1964 PhD thesis at the University
of Michigan. Although it contains no references or footnotes,
and thus lacks the documentation and completeness of the
dissertation, it is still (March 2009) the best biography of Dr.
Kellogg. The author is a Seventh-day Adventist.
Contents: Preface. 1. The boy foreshadows the man. 2. A
convert (the early health reform and vegetarian movements
in America). 3. From teacher to doctor. 4. A man is what
he eats. 5. Changing American habits. 6. Developing the
Battle Creek Sanitarium. 7. Sanitarium ups and downs. 8. A
torrent of words. 9. Variations on a boyhood dream. 10. The
unwilling surgeon. 11. Products of an active mind. 12. All
work, but little play. 13. What manner of man. 14. Father of
forty-two children. 15. His brother’s keeper. 16. The ties of
fi fty years are broken. 17. Food manufacturing and family
quarrels. 18. New outlets for promoting an old program. 19.
The last battles. 20. An epilogue.
Concerning meat substitutes (p. 121-23): “During the
years in which he directed the experiments which led to the
production of fl aked cereals, Bromose, and Malted Nuts,
Dr. Kellogg also attempted to develop a substitute for meat
from plant sources. He traced his interest in such a product to
conversations with Dr. Charles W. Dabney, noted agricultural
chemist and former president of the University of Tennessee.
When Dabney was serving as President Cleveland’s Assistant
Secretary of Agriculture [probably about 1893-1897], he had
discussed with Kellogg the problem of supplying adequate
protein for the world’s rapidly expanding population. The
men agreed that it was better economics to use grain for
human food than to feed it to animals and then use them for
food. The problem, as Dabney saw it, was to produce a grain
product which would have all the nutritional value and taste
appeal of meat.
“In 1896 Kellogg announced that he had perfected the
ideal substitute for meat in Nuttose, a nut product which
he could prepare to taste much like beef or chicken... The
doctor’s interest in new vegetarian meatlike protein foods
continued active until shortly before his death. Among
some of the more popular creations later developed in his
laboratories were Protose, Battle Creek Steaks, and Battle
Creek Skallops. Various combinations of nuts and wheat
gluten composed the principal ingredients in the imitation
meats...
“Kellogg’s last major food discovery was an artifi cial
milk made principally from soybeans. He was particularly
enthusiastic over soy milk because it proved an excellent