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

Manufacturer’s Address: Granovita UK Ltd., Ambron
House, Eastfi eld Road, Wellingborough, Northants NN8
1QX, UK. DE-VAU-GE, Luener Rennbahn 18, Postfach
1660, D-2120 Lueneburg (near Hamburg), West Germany.
Date of Introduction: 1996. March.
Wt/Vol., Packaging, Price: 125 gm plastic cup with peeloff
foil lid. Retails for £0.37.
How Stored: Refrigerated.
New Product–Documentation: Soyafoods (ASA, Europe).
1996. Spring. p. 4. “Granovita launches Soya Yogharts.”
These are ambient stable products with a shelf life of 4
months. They contain real fruit with no added sugar, artifi cial
color, or preservatives. A photo shows cups (and labels) of
the four different fl avored products.
Note: In late 1990, DE-VAU-GE, a Seventh-day
Adventist health food company in Germany, set up
GranoVita UK Ltd. as a UK subsidiary after the Haldane
Foods Group purchased their UK distributor, Granose Foods
Ltd.
1094. Product Name: So Good Natural Yoghert.
Manufacturer’s Name: Haldane Foods Group Ltd.
(Marketer). Made in Clwyd, Wales, by Genice Foods Ltd.
Manufacturer’s Address: Howard Way, Newport Pagnell,
Buckinghamshire MK16 9PY, England. Phone: +44 1908
211311.
Date of Introduction: 1996. March.
Ingredients: Incl. soya milk.
Wt/Vol., Packaging, Price: 360 gm resealable pot. Retails
for £0.89 (4/96, England).
How Stored: Shelf stable, 4-month shelf life at room
temperature. Refrigerate after opening.
New Product–Documentation: Spot in Soyafoods (ASA,
Europe). 1996. Spring. p. 4. “New products from Haldane
Foods Group.” This product was launched in a family size
(360 gm) resealable pot.
1095. SoyaScan Notes. 1996. A simple prediction for the
future of soybeans, isofl avones, and genistein (Overview).
Compiled by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center.
• Summary: 1. Soy isofl avones and genistein will soon be
available commercially in America. They will probably not
be sold in a concentrated form, as supplements, because
of the legal risk the manufacturer would face if someone
overdosed. Therefore they will probably be sold as a food
ingredient, to be added in carefully calculated doses to
popular healthy foods such as tofu, soymilk, or soy yogurt–
as well as similar non-soy foods. The amount of total
isofl avones and of genistein will appear on the package,
along with some mention of their protective effects.
2. Within 5-10 years there will be an RDA for the most
important phytochemicals (including soy isofl avones or
genistein), just as there are today for vitamins and minerals.
3. This will expand the focus of the RDAs from preventing
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 417
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nutritional defi ciencies to preventing disease and promoting
good health. 4. The next step in the evolution of the RDA
will be to fi nd the optimum doses of certain vitamins and
perhaps phytochemicals for promoting good health.
1096. Day, Charles E. 1996. Commercial development by
Audax of soy isofl avone products (Interview). SoyaScan
Notes. April 1. Conducted by William Shurtleff of Soyfoods
Center.
• Summary: Charles worked for Upjohn for many years
and from them he learned how to do research and to make
drugs. He fi rst got interested in soybeans in 1993 when he
happened to read the now famous article titled “Genistein, a
dietary-derived inhibitor of in vitro angiogenesis,” by Fotsis,
Adlercreutz, and others published in the April 1993 issue
of the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences
(90:2690-94). Both of his parents, who lived in Kentucky,
had been stricken with cancer and he was trying to help
them. He had set up a laboratory nearby, and he immediately
tried to extract genistein from soybeans in this lab. But he
simply couldn’t make the quantities he needed. By the time
he had a little pilot plant set up, it was too late. His father
died in July 1993 and his mother died in October 1993, the
same week he had enough genistein to give to her.
As far as Charles knows, his is the only company
extracting isofl avones from soybeans. His is a small, familyowned
business (the employees are himself, his wife, his
son, and one new outside person), but he believes it has great
potential for growth. ADM keeps saying they are going to.
He has had several meetings and discussions with all of the
ADM executives in charge of that division. A plane load of
them have come to Kentucky to visit him, and his team has
gone to Decatur, Illinois, to meet with them several times.
He does not know what ADM is thinking and why they are
not moving forward in this area. They would have no trouble
developing a good, large-scale process for extracting and
purifying the various soy isofl avones. He has also talked
to some other big soy processors. One reason for their
hesitation is the fear of a big lawsuit, if someone overdoses
and gets sick.
Charles hesitated to move forward with his
manufacturing plans for fear that if ADM started extracting
isofl avones, he would not be able to compete. Then a
company came to Charles and said they wanted it so badly
they were willing to buy it at virtually any price and wanted
to sign a contract on the spot. That company was Natus,
owned by Dr. Stephen Holt.
One of Charles’ major concerns is the regulatory
aspects of introducing such a product. With the passage of
the Dietary Supplements Health Education Act (DSHEA,
pronounced duh-SHEE-uh, also called the Hatch Act, after
Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah) in 15 Oct. 1994,
the whole world of nutraceuticals was revolutionized. This
Act made it much easier to sell dietary supplements without