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

additional 286 hectares will be planted to produce 400 tons
of beans and an additional 20 tons of seed. By December
1996, these beans–approximately 40% of the amount needed
in Havana and Pinar del Rio per annum, will be delivered to
their fi rst targeted factories.
“An important aspect of our commitment as a company
is to submit proposals to, and to work with, suitable
funding/lending agencies to obtain even larger investments
towards Cuba’s self-suffi ciency in soybeans. Given Cuba’s
commitment to make healthier and tastier soy food products–
soy milk, yogurt, ice cream, cheeses, margarine, mayonnaise
and meat substitutes, we have pledged to get experts in
organic soy food research and production to Cuba, and to
procure large quantities of herb and spice seed for use in soy
food recipes.”
“As of mid July, 1995, we have 200 shareholders. Our
goal is a minimum of 500 shareholders by Thanksgiving,
when we will publicly announce that we are ‘trading with the
enemy’ through a Washington, DC, press conference.”
“On the April 1995 Freedom to Travel Challenge, Soy
Cubano! shareholders delivered $3,000 to a soy food factory
in Pinar del Rio. So your dollars are already at work making
it possible for Cuban Children in Pinar del Rio to get soy
yogurt and other soy foods...”
A photo shows “Two Cuban children benefi tting from
the soy yogurt drink.” Address: Cuba Food and Medicine
Campaign, c/o Global Exchange, 2017 Mission St., San
Francisco, California 94110. Phone: 415-558-8682.
1063. Demos, Steve. 1995. New developments at White
Wave (Interview). SoyaScan Notes. Aug. 14. Conducted by
William Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center.
• Summary: White Wave is working to take advantage of
the huge amount of publicity about soy protein lowering
blood cholesterol. He would like to develop soy-based
nutraceuticals (a term Steve fi rst heard from Jeffrey Bland
several years ago; the new food medicine) or dietary
supplements as a sort of bridge to motivate people to move
toward healthy foods. The only two motivators are fear and
greed; he will use fear since soy is not glamorous enough to
use greed. He has talked with FDA attorneys who have made
it clear that under NLEA only dietary supplements can make
nutritional claims. Yet the line between foods and dietary
supplements is very unclear. It largely depends on how the
product is positioned and marketed. Garlic is by far the
best-selling supplement in the USA. Slim Fast is a dietary
supplement. A soy yogurt or a fortifi ed soymilk could also
be positioned as a dietary supplement. Shurtleff’s comments:
Danger of excess protein intake, which is hard on kidneys
and can leach calcium from bones (hypercalciuria). Most of
the cholesterol-lowering effect of soy protein may be due to
the phytoestrogens bonded to it, so we may want to focus on
genistein rather than soy protein. Consider a small product
like the lactobacillus drink sold in Japan. Sandoz’s concept
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 402
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of selling nutrition not food.
Topic #2. Position on the World Wide Web. Steve’s
mission is to build brand equity. Paul Chasnoff has registered
and “locked in” three positions on the World Wide Web:
Tofu.com, Soy.com, and WhiteWave.com. These give him
control of the on-ramp to the web. It is very cheap and there
are no protections at this time. He has just traded beads for
Manhattan, for ownership of the key subject headings in
the card catalog. If things change, there will probably be a
grandfather clause to protect him.
His soymilk should be on the market in a gable-top
caton in November. He has not yet proved marketability. He
thinks he has found a manufacturer. Pacifi c Foods refused
to sell him base. Protein Technologies International (PTI) is
selling a consumer soymilk somewhere.
One big upcoming project is to launch a line entrees in
fi ve fl avors. The center of the meal will be a starch (such as
rice or noodles) with fl avored protein over the top. Address:
President, White Wave Inc., 1990 North 57th Court, Boulder,
Colorado 80301. Phone: 303-443-3470.
1064. Dorsch, Alan. 1995. Information Resources, Inc.
(IRI): The world’s largest independent market research fi rm
and supplier of scanner data, and their InfoScan database
service (Interview). SoyaScan Notes. Aug. 16. Conducted by
William Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center.
• Summary: IRI has been in business for about 15 years; 2-3
years ago they passed Nielsen to become the world’s largest
independent market research fi rm. Nielsen, which is IRI’s
only competitor, is owned by Dun & Bradstreet. The U.S.
market for syndicated data services is roughly a $600 million
a year market. IRI has about 55% of this market share, while
Nielsen has about 45%. They collect scanner data from
food, drug, mass, and convenience stores (c-stores). They
supplement this with audit data in the stores that don’t have
scanning. Note: They do not cover natural/health food stores.
Their food-related information comes only from scanner
data. They develop categories (they now have about 250)
and they process the data, and serve it up with software to
consumer products goods companies–like Worthington,
which has been a customer since 1992. Their customer use
that information to measure their marketing programs, track
trends, etc.
Information is available in two general formats: (1)
Syndicated database and (2) a customized database. The
customer is allowed extensive input in the way they set up a
customized database. This database has 4 basic dimensions:
Products, time periods, measures, and geographies. They
have a structured hierarchy for their databases that is
unique to IRI. The hierarchy starts at the category level,
and gets more detailed the further you drill down. Looking
at each one: (1) Product dimensions: Category (e.g. meat
alternatives, soap). Type (e.g. refrigerated/frozen, shelf
stable, hand soap, laundry soap, shower gels). Parent Co.