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

• Summary: Introduced in 1985, Tofu Pups are meatless
frankfurters made from tofu without nitrates, preservatives
or cholesterol. Owners of Lightlife Foods Inc., formerly
known as Tempeh Works, believe the soybean creation is on
the verge of becoming a national hit. “It’s an alternative to
red meat that is low-calorie, low-sodium, has no cholesterol
or preservatives, which is what more and more people in
this country are looking for,” says Michael Cohen, founder
of Tempeh Works. Lightlife’s sales fi gures confi rm Cohen’s
optimism. The fi rst year on the market, sales of Tofu Pups
were $230,000. The next year, sales jumped to $405,000–a
76% increase. Executives expect 1988 to be the fi rst year
combined tofu and tempeh sales top $1 million, at an annual
growth rate of about 40%. To keep pace with an expanding
market, Lightlife wants to double the size of its 6000-squarefoot
Fairview Street factory in an ambitious $730,000
expansion plan.
In 1983, the operation moved from an old gas station on
French King Highway to its current Fairview Street plant.
To fi nance this transition and buy some new machinery, the
company borrowed heavily from Shawmut Bank and fell
into the red for the next three years. “We went from having
$3000 in interest payments to $35,000,” says Cohen. In the
Northeast the tofu franks are also sold in supermarket chains
such as Stop & Shop, Purity Supreme, Finast and Big Y. The
fi rm now has 15 full-time employees.
At present Lightlife produces the fl avoring, which
Cohen calls the Tofu Pups “soul”. The other food processor
blends the fl avoring with tofu and stuffs it into casings. If
things go as planned, Lightlife will make its own Tofu Pups
from scratch once the company expands its plant. But the
Tofu Pups cost more than their traditional counterparts–$2.49
to $2.99 for a 16-ounce package of 10 tofu franks. Meat
wieners typically cost $1.49 to $2.39. A photo shows Chia
Collins and Michael Cohen of Lightlife.
Tomsun International recently declared bankruptcy.
They tried to grow too quickly and couldn’t keep up with
demand for Jofu [a yogurt alternative made from tofu].
Address: Recorder staff.
766. Creces, Henry. 1988. History of Panda Sprouts Inc. and
new developments (Interview). SoyaScan Notes. May 27
and Aug. 29. Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods
Center.
• Summary: Henry’s brother, Eddy, bought the company
from Hal Siegel in Oct. 1987. In May 1988 Panda Sprouts
was making 15,000 lb/week of tofu. It had been in Woodside,
New York, but Hal moved it to 1321 Oakpoint Ave., The
Bronx, NY 10474. He is now in the process of moving
the company to larger quarters in Goshen, New York. The
company used to be named Panda Foods but Hal renamed it
Panda Sprouts Inc. They make alfalfa sprouts and tofu, just
as Hal did. Whatever Hal produced he sold to Coosemans,
his only customer. They sold all his products. Finally he
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 283
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went bankrupt and Henry’s brother bought him out. Henry
comes from Belgium, where he worked for Coosemans Inc.,
a wholesale import-export company. They began operations
in the USA in Los Angeles in 1982 and he came to this
country in 1983, when he started to work for Coosemans
LA. In February he started to run Panda Sprouts. He is now
a partner.
In about May or June, Panda Sprouts started to make
the packaged and bulk tofu for Tomsun Foods, but not for
Jofu. Henry thinks that Tomsun sold Jofu to a dairy company
in Vermont, or is having it made there. Tomsun had been
in trouble for quite a while and had lost a lot of customers
before they contacted Panda. Panda took over a lot of
their equipment, which was in bad shape–and still is. Now
they are struggling to get those customers back. Nasoya
picked up many of them. Henry’s goal is to be the top tofu
manufacturer on the East Coast. Coosemans Specialties (in
New York) sells much of his tofu but not all; Henry sells
most of the bulk tofu. Address: 168 Pulaski Hwy., Goshen,
New York 10924. Phone: 914-651-4490.
767. Bachmann, Marc R.; Karmas, Endel. Assignors to
Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey). 1988.
Novel cultured buttermilk compositions and method of
preparation. U.S. Patent 4,748,025. May 31. 6 p. Application
fi led 24 Feb. 1986. [33 ref]
• Summary: The product involves fermentation of a
mixture of 15-70% fresh milk (cows’, ewes’ or other)
and 85-30% soy milk. No sweetener nor thickener is
required. Flavourings or fruit preparations can be added
conventionally. The product has a PER of approximately
2.5 and a low animal fat content. Address: 1. Winterthur,
Switzerland; 2. Kendall Park, NJ.
768. Lukoskie, Luke. 1988. Recent developments at Island
Spring, Inc (Interview). Conducted by William Shurtleff of
Soyfoods Center, June 2. 3 p. transcript.
• Summary: In Nov. 1986 Edward Lynch Co. (ELCO)
had contracted to invest $7 million in Island Spring. They
had seen how french fries took off and they felt that tofu
could follow the same pattern, so they wanted to be in on
the ground fl oor. They actually paid in $4 million. Then
in 1987 the relationship broke up. An agreement was
reached whereby ELCO obtained possession of the STS
soymilk plant. It went to their subsidiary Pacifi c Foods of
Oregon, located in Tualatin near Portland. ELCO also owns
Pacifi c Foods, formerly Sunny Jim, which is an established
manufacturer of fruit preserves, juices, peanut butter, etc.,
and Crescent Foods. Pacifi c Foods plans to make soymilk
but no one in the company knows how nor do they know
the natural foods market, which is already extremely
competitive. Moreover they have a 2-year non-compete
agreement with Island Spring. Luke thinks it will cost them
$10 million to put a soymilk product on the market.