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

had originated; the key to it had been a gift to him from a
higher power. Thus, he felt it was simply not his to sell. So
he gave the process to the Adventist church but sold the rest
of the business to Loma Linda Foods (they operate the Mt.
Vernon plant to this day), and loaned them the money to
buy it. They paid him in installments and he returned half
of the money to them for them to set up laboratories and a
pilot plant in their headquarters at 11503 Pierce Boulevard
in Riverside (the town was then called Arlington). Here he
established the International Nutrition Research Foundation,
which he further endowed heavily with his own funds; 95
percent of its future research was on soyfoods. He bought a
home nearby. For the three years following his wife’s death
he worked intensively on soyfoods research. In 1951 Loma
Linda fi rst introduced Soyagen, a lightly fortifi ed soymilk for
adults to match their Soyalac for babies. Miller did extensive
work on further eliminating the beany fl avor from soymilk
using a vacuum pan and fl ash pasteurization. By 1958 his
labs had developed new and improved soymilks, soy cream,
improved acidophilus soymilk and ice cream, cottage cheese,
a soy-cream cheese spread, cholesterol-free cheese, and
a non-dairy margarine.” Continued. Address: Lafayette,
California.
427. Shurtleff, William. 1981. Dr. Harry Miller: Taking
soymilk around the world (Continued–Document part V).
Soyfoods 1(4):28-36. Winter.
• Summary: Continued. “In 1953, at the age of 74, he
married for a third time (his wife was about 35) and shortly
thereafter was asked to establish an Adventist Sanitarium
in Taipei, Taiwan. With it, of course, he started a soy dairy
at a school, which supplied the school, the Sanitarium, and
the surrounding community with soymilk daily. In 1956,
when it came time for Miller to leave Taiwan, Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek personally gave him China’s highest
award, the Blue Star of China, in appreciation for his
tireless service to the people of China in saving the lives
of thousands of infants with the use of soymilk and in
establishing some twelve sanitarium-hospital clinics. At
the time, the Generalissimo, who had been a former patient
of Dr. Miller’s, recalled how he had become so fond of the
sanitarium’s soymilk that he had once sent his private plane
over 1,000 miles to Shanghai to replenish his supply.
“In 1954 the World Health Organization became
interested in Miller’s work with soymilk. His oldest son,
H.W. (Bill) Miller supervised the construction of a joint FAO
/ UNICEF soymilk plant in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia,
which opened in 1957 and produced about two tons a day of
a spray-dried soymilk called Saridele.
“After fi lling in for other surgeons in Trinidad and Libya
from 1956 to 1957, Miller went to Japan in 1957 to spend
seven months as medical director and surgeon at the Tokyo
Sanitarium-Hospital. He was now 79. Despite his busy
medical routine, he found time to set up a small soymilk
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 175
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pilot plant in the hospital kitchen where they made soymilk,
soy whipping cream, soy ice cream, and soy spread, which
were served to the staff and patients. In cooperation with the
Japanese Ministry of Health, he then developed the concept
of helping existing small tofu producers to set up a soymilk
operation right in their shops by adding on a boiler, pressure
cooker, homogenizer, cooler, and bottler. The equipment
could be installed for less than $2,000 and would enable
each plant to produce 150 pounds of tofu and 200 gallons of
soymilk a day using three trained workers. Miller personally
helped at least one small rural tofu shop set up such a
system; their soymilk was sold fresh and hot or cold and
bottled for half the price of fresh dairy milk.
“Starting in about 1955 Dr. Miller began to recommend
that the Adventist-run Japan Saniku School serve soymilk
instead of cow’s milk to the students; however the staff
hesitated because of questions about its nutritional value
and fl avor. In 1957 two Japanese Adventists, Mr. Hidekazu
Watanabe and Mr. Hanzo Ueda (who ran a tofu shop at the
time) started making Japan’s fi rst soymilk on a small scale in
Hachioji, Tokyo, bottling it in 180-ml bottles, and selling it
locally. Mr. Watanabe later described the great value to them
of Dr. Miller’s ongoing technical, nutritional, and spiritual
guidance.
“After some time, directors of the Saniku School
visited the small soymilk plant, liked the soymilk fl avor, and
understood its nutritional value. In 1959 they bought similar
equipment, set up a small plant in the school, and started to
produce soymilk, which was bottled in 180-ml bottles and
served to the students at every meal. In 1969 the Saniku
School set up an independent food production company
called College Health Foods (which later became today’s
Saniku Foods) and through it, with the help of Loma Linda
Foods in America, began to produce Soyalac soymilk infant
formula. That same year, the Luppy Soymilk Company
started and went on to produce Japan’s fi rst widely popular
commercial soymilk.
“By 1980 Japan’s largest soymilk producers were Kibun
Foods (33,000 pacs a day), Saniku Foods (23,000 pacs a
day), Okazaki Marusan (23,000 pacs a day), and Mitsubishi
Kasei (18,000 pacs a day), A typical pac is 200 ml (6.8 fl uid
ounces).
“Prior to 1960, a small soymilk plant similar to
those established by Miller in Japan, was set up at the
Adventist-run Mountain View College in Central Mindanao,
Philippines. The college farm raised edible soybeans and the
700 students were served fresh soymilk each morning for
breakfast and fresh tofu for lunch.
“In 1960 Dr. Miller again accepted the invitation of the
Adventist church to start a new hospital, this time in Hong
Kong. As always, it was accompanied by a little soymilk
plant. By 1960 soy dairies had also been established in Hong
Kong at the South China Union College and at an Adventistrun
college in Bandung, Indonesia.