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

married to Raul Castro (Fidel’s brother), is a chemist or
biochemist, speaks good English, and has been involved with
popularizing soybeans and soyfoods in Cuba for many years.
In the early 1960s Vilma organized a Cuban group named
“Friends of the Soybean.”
The afternoon sessions on the fi rst day were divided
into two parts: Soybean production, and soybean utilization.
The fi rst was open to everyone, the second was restricted
to speakers only, because of Cuba’s proprietary soymilk
and soy yogurt technology. Dr. Gilberto Fleites, a top
Cuban cancer surgeon who is also a vegetarian, gave a
presentation to both sessions on soy, diet and health, with
an excellent slide show that he has developed; he answered
many questions and received many requests for talk to other
organizations.
The conference was attended by representatives from
both agriculture and food processing from every Cuban
province. The food representatives brought samples of their
best soy yogurt and soy cream cheese. At the conference
there was a contest to see which organization had the best
soy yogurt. Las Tunas won, with a special award going to a
factory in Havana. In all, the conference was very up-beat.
Video- and audio tapes were made of most of the sessions,
and the proceedings are expected to be available in Spanish.
Pam has a Spanish language conference agenda.
At the conference, Pam learned that two other foreign
groups are apparently involved with growing soybeans in
Cuba. Vilma Espín’s women’s group (FMC) has a project
very similar to Global Exchange’s funded by Oxfam Canada
and now underway in the easternmost province of Cuba,
Santiago de Cuba (near Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval
base). The project is getting its seeds from INIFAT, but there
seems to be poor communication between INIFAT and this
project, to the extent that Pam wondered if a rivalry might
have developed between them. Oxfam Canada fi rst began
work in Cuba in Jan. 1995 and Pam helped to interest them
in work with soy. Canadians Minor Sinclair and Sheila
Katz are now involved with this soy project. A second
Cuban group is also working on this project, the National
Association for Small-Scale Agriculture (Association
Nacional de Agricultura Pequena, ANAP). They just had
their fi rst harvest and got a good yield of about 2 tons of seed
per acre. Minor (who now lives in Havana with his wife,
Martha Thomson) in writing up a report on the project for
Pam. Pam’s combine has not yet arrived in Cuba.
An Italian NGO (non-governmental organization),
which is part of the European Union, is said to be trying to
do another soy project, and has offered to invest $1 million
in the project.
During 1996, nationwide, Cuba hopes to grow between
6,700 ha and 8,040 ha of soybeans (500 to 600 caberillas; 1
caberilla = 13.4 ha). If all goes well, this area would provide
them with about 15,000 metric tons of soybeans–enough for
all their food needs but only about 10% of their total needs
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 419
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including vegetable oil and livestock feed.
Only two foreigners attended the soy conference–Pam
and a man from Mexico. Pam heard that Cuba has signed a
contract to export its soymilk manufacturing technology to
an organization in Semaya, Mexico. This would be Cuba’s
fi rst known export of such technology. Last year Cubans
did a lot of traveling throughout Latin America looking for
customers.
Tito Nuñez’s vegetarian restaurant in the Botanical
Garden, next to a Japanese garden, is just lovely and
becoming very popular. The food is organically grown and
presented in a beautiful way. Address: Coordinator of Soy
Cubano! Company, Food and Medicine Campaign, c/o
Global Exchange, 2017 Mission St. #303C, San Francisco,
California 94110. Phone: 415-255-7296 or 415-558-8682.
1098. Goulart, Frances Sheridan. 1996. Oh, soy! Fit (New
York). March/April. p. 77-79.
• Summary: On the section titled “A nutritional wonder,” the
authors notes that soymilk has 15 times more iron than dairy
milk, 50% less fat, and no cholesterol. Tofu is one of the two
best sources of calcium (yogurt is the other) recommended
by the Osteoporosis Foundation for meeting adult calcium
needs (1,000 mg/daily). One 4-oz. serving of tofu provides
twice as much calcium as one cup of plain yogurt. Soybeans
provide the antioxidant vitamins A and E.
A sidebar titled “Your soy shopping list” gives brief
defi nitions of tofu, tempeh, miso, natto, soy milk, soy cheese,
soy sauce, and textured vegetable protein (TVP). Address:
Connecticut.
1099. Husin, Adinan; Ahmad, Hasimah Hafi z. 1996. Soybean
as a consistent industrial resource. In: Alex Buchanan, ed.
1996. Proceedings of the Second International Soybean
Processing and Utilization Conference: 8-13 January 1996,
Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok, Thailand: Printed by Funny
Publishing Limited Partnership. Distributed by The Institute
of Food Research and Product Development, Kasetsart
University. xviii + 556 p. See p. 497-507. [30 ref]
• Summary: Contents: Abstract. Introduction. Processing of
soybean. Food uses of soybean. Processing of soybean oil.
Processing of protein products: Flours, protein concentrates,
protein isolates, textured protein products. Unfermented
soy products: Soy curd/tofu, soymilk, snacks. Fermented
products: Tempe, soy sauce, cheese (Commercial cheese
alternatives claim to taste, melt, and stretch like regular
cheese. Soy cheese now comes in Jalapeno Jack style,
Cheddar style, mozzarella style, Garlic-herb style, and
Monterey Jack style). Non-food uses (“Soy oils are used
in non-food applications such as in the preparation of
soaps, paints, varnishes, resins, plastics, lubricants and
agrochemicals”). Promoting the use of soybean. Conclusion.
Address: Food Technology Research Centre, MARDI, G.P.O.
Box 12301, 50774 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.