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

• Summary: “A factory to produce soya milk has been
opened in Trafford Park, Manchester. UK supplies of this
low fat, high protein drink have previously been imported
from Belgium, France, and Germany.
“Sales [of soya milk] in the UK have increased fi ve-fold
in the last year to total £3.5 million; the company behind the
new venture, Soya Health Foods, estimates that the market
will reach £20 million within the next three years. They are
already producing 46,000 litres a week, packed in cartons
and sold under the brand name of Sunrise. Later in the year,
they are hoping to launch a soya yogurt and soya milk ice
cream. There are also plans for a soya milk by-product,
presently sold as pig feed.” Note: Taking the retail price at
UK£0.64 per liter, these values correspond to 5,600 tonnes
of soya milk for 1984 and 32,000 tonnes projected for 1988.
Address: England.
562. Product Name: [Tofu Drink].
Manufacturer’s Name: Hika Shoten (Japan).
Manufacturer’s Address: Japan.
Date of Introduction: 1985. May.
New Product–Documentation: Japanscan Food Industry
Bulletin. 1985. 3(3):5. May. “Hika Shoten has found a way
to blend orange juice with tofu successfully. The tofu is
milled to particle size less than one micron and up to 30%
orange juice is added. The resulting beverage is positioned as
a yogurt beverage alternative.”
563. Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko. 1985. The
Americanization of tempeh (1970 to 1980s) (Continued–
Document part II). In: W. Shurtleff and A. Aoyagi, Akiko.
1985. History of Tempeh: A Fermented Soyfood from
Indonesia. 2nd ed. Lafayette, California: Soyfoods Center. 91
p. See p. 43-46. May. [402 ref]
• Summary: Continued. “In 1974 Cynthia Bates joined the
Soy Dairy crew and learned the basic lab techniques for
making tempeh starter from Alexander. She built a tempeh
incubator out of an old refrigerator and by November 1974
was making 20-30 pound batches of okara tempeh, using the
soy pulp (okara) left over after making soymilk. By January
1975 The Farm Tempeh Shop was making 80-200 pounds
of tempeh a week. The incubator was expanded into a used
bean dryer and sporulated okara tempeh (dried and ground)
started to be used as a starter. In 1975, in order to share their
discovery with people across America and around the world,
the community (now having 1,100 members) featured a
section on tempeh (written by Cynthia Bates) in their widely
read Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, including the fi rst tempeh
recipes to be published in any European language (Farm
1975).
“In 1975, after Wang, Swain and Hesseltine at the
NRRC published their paper on mass production of tempeh
spores, Bates set up a little laboratory and began making
tempeh starter for use on The Farm. The starter was grown
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 216
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on rice, using the syringe inoculation technique and a spore
suspension of starter sent periodically and kindly by Dr.
Wang. By 1976 powdered pure-culture tempeh starter, made
by Bates at the Tempeh Lab, was being sent out or sold to
interested people. Publications were now needed to explain
how to use the starter to make tempeh, then how to cook
the tempeh. In 1975 or early 1976 Alexander Lyon typed
up a three-page fl yer titled ‘Tempeh Instructions,’ which
contained the fi rst instructions in any European language for
making tempeh at home, and listed The Farm as a source of
tempeh starter. Bates wrote and The Farm printed a 2-page
fl yer titled ‘Tempe,’ which described how to make fi ve
pounds of tempeh and contained four recipes, including the
world’s fi rst Tempeh Burger recipe. This fl yer was distributed
with the starter, along with ‘Fermentation Funnies,’ cartoons
introducing tempeh. In 1976 Bates and co-workers wrote
a 20-page article titled ‘Beatnik Tempeh Making’ (later
retitled ‘Utilization of Tempeh in North America’) for the
Symposium on Indigenous Fermented Foods in Bangkok,
Thailand.
By Sept. 1976 the Tennessee Farm community, with
Suzie Jenkins as tempeh production manager, was making
at least 60 pounds of tempeh a day, and they were using a
centrifuge (Cynthia Bates’ idea) to dewater the soybeans
after cooking and before inoculation–a technological
breakthrough that soon caught on among commercial tempeh
makers.
Also by 1976 The Farm’s satellite farms had established
commercial tempeh shops in San Rafael, California, and
Houma, Louisiana. A number of America’s early tempeh
shops (such as The Tempeh Works in Massachusetts or
Surata Soyfoods in Oregon) were started by people who
learned the process on The Farm. America’s fi rst soy deli, set
up in August 1976 at the Farm Food Company’s storefront
restaurant in San Rafael, featured tempeh in Tempeh
Burgers, Deep-fried Tempeh Cutlets, and Tempeh with
Creamy Tofu Topping, the fi rst tempeh dishes sold in an
American-style restaurant.
“The media blitz for tempeh that began in 1977
created a booming little business on The Farm for tempeh
ingredients. A January 1977 article in Organic Gardening
listed The Farm as the only known source of split, hulled
soybeans. Orders began to arrive. Soon Dr. Wang at the
USDA in Peoria, fl ooded by orders for tempeh starter, was
forwarding many of then to The Farm. Then articles by The
Farm (Cynthia Bates and Deborah Flowers) about tempeh in
Mother Earth News (Sept. 1977) and East West Journal (July
1978) led to a surge of orders for both starter and split soy
beans.
“In 1977 Farm Foods was founded; it took over
marketing of the tempeh starter, together with hulled
soybeans and revised editions of the tempeh instructions
(1977, 1978). The three items were sold nationwide as
America’s fi rst Tempeh Kit by mail order and in some