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

was launched in Italy, in English with a sticker applied by
Genice, thru a company partly owned by ADM named AFG
Italy S.r.l. (Via S. Cassiano 76, Trecate, Novara 28069, Italy)
and in mid-1993 in Portugal with an English label through
another ADM subsidiary, Natiris (Centro Dietetico Lda., Rua
de Santo Antonia, Estrela No. 31-B, 1300 Lisburn, Portugal).
Italy is one of the two fastest growing yogurt markets in
Europe, and it may soon pass Sweden to become Genice’s
second largest export market. Continued. Address: Founder,
Genice Foods Ltd., Pinfold Lane, Llay Industrial Estate,
Llay near Wrexham, Clwyd, LL12 OPX, Wales/Cymru, UK.
Phone: 0978-853-787.
1006. Pierce, Ray. 1994. A brief history of Genice Foods
Ltd. and their work with soy ice creams, yogurts, creams,
and margarine. Part IV (Interview). SoyaScan Notes. Feb. 4,
8, 10, and 16. Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods
Center. Followed by a an 8-page fax on 7 Feb. 1994.
• Summary: Ray feels that these soy yogurts are excellent
products. Consumers must have the same opinion since the
market is growing very rapidly. “In retail terms, this soya
yoghurt market is now worth around £2 million sterling ($3
million), whereas it was worth only about £30,000 sterling
in 1985.” The market was almost totally created in the last
four years–since Genice started making soy yogurt using its
unique process that gives a shelf-stable product.
Today Genice now sells about ten times as much soy
yogurt as soy ice cream. Moreover, sales of soy ice cream
are fairly static, while sales of soy yogurt are leaping ahead.
Genice makes at least 90% of the soy yogurts sold in the UK.
In short, Genice started as a non-dairy ice cream company,
which has in fact turned into a non-dairy yogurt company!
“The soy yogurts really sold themselves. It was amazing
how they took off so well.” There are about 1,500 health
food shops in the UK, and no more than half of those have
a freezer, so they cannot sell ice cream. Even those with a
freezer, usually have very limited frozen storage capacity
and the competition for that small space (as from dairy ice
creams) is intense. Almost all of those with no freezer also
have no refrigerated storage; they sell mainly “pills and
potions” etc.” So a refrigerated or frozen product can be
sold in less than half of all health food stores. This gives
shelf-stable products, such as Genice’s soy yogurts, a big
advantage. Genice is moving its soy yogurts into Italy and
Portugal in a bigger way, and is launching two new yogurts
for Spain this year (competing soy yogurts are sold on a
small scale in Spain). Other concepts and fl avours will be
introduced into the yoghurt area in 1994, together with the
quest for other export markets continuing both in Europe and
the rest of the world.
Genice uses fresh soymilk (produced by Unisoy) to
make about 50% of its total volume of soy yogurt, and
isolated soy proteins to make the other 50%. Powdered
soymilk is not used because it is very expensive and too
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 375
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hard to obtain. Isolates are more convenient to use but Ray
now feels that fresh soymilk gives a slightly better product–
though this is very subjective and different people have
different opinions. Isolates also give an excellent soy yogurt.
One of the markets that Genice has not yet entered–and
would like to–is Germany, where there are large sales of
soymilk and twice as many health shops (Reform Houses)
as in the UK. Since most of the Reform Houses do not have
chilled or frozen cabinets, Genice’s shelf-stable products
would fi t perfectly; they could be sold on the shelf next to the
Muesli. In the smaller health food shops in the UK, Genice’s
shelf-stable soy products are usually sold unchilled, but in
the bigger shops, like Holland & Barrett, they sold chilled,
since they taste better after being chilled.
Other dairylike non-dairy products that Genice has
made are as follows: In 1990 chilled So Good Soycreem was
launched as a non-dairy alternative to dairy double cream,
but low in cholesterol, high in polyunsaturates, and low in
saturates. It was made for Haldane in a little beige plastic pot
with a green foil lid, packed at the Genice plant. It contains a
trace of cholesterol because law requires that it contain 36%
oil, including some palm oil. In 1991 a shelf-stable UHT
version (completely sterilized, with a 9-month shelf life),
now named Granose Soya Creem, was launched in a 225 ml
Combibloc pack, made for Genice by a large dairy in Ireland
which had Combibloc packaging equipment. The chilled So
Good Soycreem was discontinued. In 1992 Genice installed a
vegetarian margarine plant, which also makes Granose Soya
Margarine that is sold chilled. This margarine was developed
in Germany, so they took over the business and reformulated
the product.
Genice is doing very well. The plant has expanded to
15,000 square feet from its original 2,500–a 6-fold increase.
Their turnover (gross sales) has doubled virtually every year
since they have been in business. Being owned by ADM
has been of great benefi t to Genice because ADM has been
extremely generous in providing the money that Genice
needs for its ongoing expansion and implementation of new
ideas. Genice would eventually like to enter the U.S. market
(starting in New York) with its shelf-stable non-dairy yogurt
products, since there are no such products in America.
When yogurt is pasteurized, the benefi cial effects of
the yogurt bacteria are nullifi ed. But Ray was just told
by Dr. Glen Gibson that oligofructose, a sugar, has the
effect of promoting the growth of the small quantities
of Bifi dobacteria in the human digestive system. Thus a
pasteurized soy yogurt could be made into an even healthier
product if it were sweetened by oligofructose.
Ray is a native of Wales and his wife is a teacher who
often teaches in Welsh. Both are happy to see the revival
of the Welsh language. Ray is not a vegetarian, but he has
a good feeling and high regard for vegetarianism, he likes
vegetarian food, and he has some vegetarian ideals but they
go beyond the food to more ethical issues. He fi nds that