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

Soyfoods Center. 110 p. Subject and country index. Partially
annotated. Printed April. 28 cm. [851 ref]
• Summary: Contains three separate bibliographies, each
indexed: Soy ice creams has 640 references from 1918 to
1988. Soy yogurts has 128 references from 1911 to 1988.
Western-style soy cheeses has 83 references from 1911 to
1988. This is the most comprehensive bibliography on each
of these subjects. Also contains a detailed description of all
known commercial products. Most of the current references
contain a summary. Details of how to make best use of
these bibliographies is presented. A subject index by record
numbers also follows each section of these bibliographies.
Address: Soyfoods Center, P.O. Box 234, Lafayette,
California 94549. Phone: 415-283-2991.
759. Wollner, Joel. 1988. Soy-based cheeses–Concerns for
the consumer. Can a traditional product be patented. Soya
Newsletter (Bar Harbor, Maine). March/April. p. 2.
• Summary: In this letter to the editor, the writer is
concerned about two issues raised in the article titled “Soy
Cheese Market” (Soya Newsletter, Jan/Feb. 1988). He
wonders to what extent the present success of soy cheese
in the natural foods marketplace is based on consumers’
lack of awareness that casein is a dairy product. His own
informal survey, conducted shortly after Soya Kaas was
fi rst introduced and already fi nding widespread acceptance,
found very few consumers who knew that casein is derived
from milk. “In fact, over 90% thought Soya Kaas was strictly
vegetarian, containing no milk-derived ingredients.”
He is also shocked that Simply Natural has patented
a product (named Soyalite) made by fermenting fresh tofu
in miso and discovered by accident. This process “is well
known and practiced by thousands of people all over the
United States, and has been since the late 1970’s. I fi rst
learned of ‘miso-pickled tofu’ (as we called it) in 1978, while
manager at Erewhon Natural Foods retail store in Boston
[Massachusetts]. One of our employees had learned the
process while studying with Noburo Muramoto, a teacher of
Oriental food-crafting in Escondido, California. Her misopickled
tofu was a big hit among the Erewhon staff, and we
began selling it ready-to-eat in the store and published the
recipe in our weekly consumer newsletter. Soon after, misopickled
tofu became a favorite dish among Boston’s diverse
natural foods community, and found a place in the menus of
local natural foods restaurants.” Address: Director, Mitoku
USA Inc., New York.
760. Huang, Tim. 1988. The Continuous Cooker sold by
Bean Machines, Inc. (Interview). SoyaScan Notes. May 3.
Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center.
• Summary: Starting 2 years ago Tim helped develop and
ran the smaller prototype of this cooker at the University
of California at Davis. He had it at Grainaissance while
he worked there briefl y. Tomsun Foods in Massachusetts
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 280
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
ordered the fi rst full-scale model. They never hooked it up
and never paid for it. So Bean Machines got it back and
Soyfoods of America got it from BMI. It is basically a very
simple machine; just a pump and steam injection. It cooks
at 250-275ºF. Soyfoods of America makes a private label
soymilk for Mrs. Gooch’s. Hopes to introduce a non-beany
soymilk kefi r and yogurt. Address: Soyfoods of America,
Duarte, California.
761. Paino, John. 1988. Recent developments at Nasoya:
Simply Natural and Tomsun (Interview). SoyaScan Notes.
May 10. Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods
Center.
• Summary: The Soyfoods Month advertorial was published
by East West and Vegetarian Times. Lenny Jacobs helped a
great deal in coordinating it. It was also sent by VT to about
100 major media in hopes that they would do a story. Tree of
Life private label tofu is made by Swan Gardens in Georgia.
The Simply Natural company is going to be merged with
Nasoya. Nasoya will take charge of the management, will go
50-50 on marketing, and will make all of their tofu and do
the billing. Previously Simply Natural has purchased their
tofu from a small manufacturer in New Jersey.
Tomsun Foods has actually fi led for a Chapter 11
under the bankruptcy laws. They want to sell off their tofu
manufacturing business and keep the Jofu. They once offered
Nasoya the right to co-pack the tofu. John said no, because
he would then be producing a tofu line that competed with
his own. Above all, Tomsun wants Nasoya to buy their
brand and accounts. But this is diffi cult for Nasoya because
he has no guarantee that the accounts will not switch to, for
example, Azumaya. He is torn every day between making an
offer and doing nothing except continuing to compete with
them.
Nasoya will reintroduce their Veggie Dips in about 3
weeks. They will have a foil seal top and a 3 month shelf life.
Note: By September 1988 Nasoya is said to be producing
100,000 lb/week of tofu with a 6-8 week shelf life. They
are expanding into the Midwest and have taken over many
Tomsun accounts. Business is booming.
Nasoya was fi rst incorporated in Dec. 1984, then in Dec.
1987 the company changed from a corporation to a limited
partnership, i.e. from Nasoya Foods, Inc. to Nasoya Foods,
Ltd. Address: Nasoya Foods, Leominster, Massachusetts.
762. Pirello, Christina Hayes. 1988. Brief history of Simply
Natural, Inc. (Interview). SoyaScan Notes. May 11 and June
6. Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center.
• Summary: In December 1984 Robert Pirello started Simply
Natural, a natural foods vegetarian catering company. In
1984 Christina had sold her design company in Florida and
moved to Philadelphia, where she worked as a freelance
designer. Her mother had died recently and she had been
diagnosed as having cancer. She was a vegetarian when she