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

Soyfoods Industry and Market. p. 7.
476. Fitzpatrick, Brian. 1982. Soya milk in Asia. In:
Theng Chye Yam, W-L Kwik, and C-Y Fong, eds. 1982.
Proceedings of Food Conference 1982. viii + 382 p. See p.
261-62. Held 16-20 May 1982 in Singapore. Publ: Singapore
Inst. of Food Science & Technology.
• Summary: Contents: History. Consumption of soymilk.
Nutrition. Soymilk- the product. Unprocessed raw materials
suitability. Clarifi ed and suspended products. Packaging.
Yields for clarifi ed and suspended. Product mix (yogurt, tofu,
ice cream). Present market.
Recent introductions of commercial soymilk products
include: Green Spot Bangkok (1960), Coca Cola test market
of SACI in Brazil (1969), Singapore Cold Storage (1969),
Kibun, Japan (1976), and Ace Canning (1980). Address:
Alfa-Laval South East Asia, Singapore.
477. SoyaScan Notes. 1982. What are piima and viili?
(Overview). June 17. Compiled by William Shurtleff of
Soyfoods Center.
• Summary: Piima and viili are two traditional cultured dairy
milk products which have long been very popular in Finland.
The two words are not clearly differentiated, for various
reasons. First, the word “piima” is often used generically
to refer to all of the many Finnish cultured milk products.
Second, viili traditionally referred to the choice, rich, creamy
(high-fat) layer that formed on the top of a bowl of piima;
the less rich, bottom portion, specifi cally called piima, was
often served as a refreshing drink. Today, however, viili and
piima are generally made separately; viili is thicker and more
stretchy. Finally, there are a number of similar or slightly
different cultured milk products, which have various names
in different parts of Finland. For example, viili is stretchy
in west and north Finland, but not in East Finland. A similar
stretchy product in west and north Finland is pitkapiima,
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 191
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while viilipiima is a cultured milk drink. Related products
are taette milk in Norway, tatmjolk and langmjolk in Sweden,
and skyr in Iceland. Swedish-speaking Finns have lang fi l.
All of these products have a thick, rich consistency with
some degree of stretchiness (ropiness) plus a delicate, subtle
sweetness; they are not sour like yogurt. Kokkeli piima is
like buttermilk.
Since ancient times piima and viili have been made
in individual Finnish homes, although today the custom is
gradually dying out, since store-bought products are readily
available (sold in cups like sour cream) and fewer people
raise their own cows. Traditionally each family kept its own
culture going. Roughly a tablespoon of starter culture, taken
from a previous batch, was spread over the bottom of a large
bowl, typically 6 inches in diameter and 2½ inches deep.
Each family member had his or her own bowl, used solely
for this purpose. The microorganisms for both products
are lactic acid streptococci; the predominant species is
Streptococcus cremoris, but S. lactis and S. diacetilactis
are also abundant. In viili a signifi cant proportion of these
microorganisms are slime/capsule formers; microscopic
analysis shows that many of the individual organisms,
composed of chains of bacteria (streptococci), form a
thin jellylike capsule around them. Moreover, in viili, a
surface-growing milk mold (Oospora lactis or Geotrichum
candidum) is usually present; it forms a prized, velvet-like
layer on the surface of the unhomogenized milk. In addition,
most traditional viili cultures contain some (nonessential)
yeasts. There is a widespread but apparently unfounded
folk belief, fi rst reported by Weigmann in 1899 and Olsen-
Sopp in 1912, that taette or piima can also be made by
adding leaves of butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) or sundew
(Drosera rotundifolia), small Scandinavian herbs (Kon
1959).
The earliest known attempt to make these Finnish
cultured foods using soymilk dates from 1978, when Pat