Functional food manufacturer MLO/GeniSoy is to launch two new products at this week's Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, California: GeniSoy Chocolate Drenched Premium Soy Nuts and Xtreme snack bars.
The chocolate covered soy nuts are low in calories (only 140 per 1 ounce serving) and saturated fat (only 4g per serving), and each ounce also contains 3g of soy protein.
Duke Field, vice president of sales and marketing, said: "Our mission is to provide easy, delicious ways for the average person to get more soy into their diet. Our Chocolate Covered Soy Nuts will encourage people to try soy for the first time and give those who already appreciate soy more avenues to incorporate its benefits into their diet."
As for Xtreme, Field said the snack bar was designed to be "an extremely healthy and extremely delicious alternative to high fat, calorie laden snacks" .
He continued: "Xtreme will be produced in four flavours, all featuring the company's roasted premium soy nuts, nine grams of soy protein and 19 vitamins and minerals per serving. Xtreme is rich in taste but surprisingly low in saturated fat - the Peanut Butter Fix, Rocky Roadtrip and Carrot Cake Quake versions have only 3g and Razberry Rush only 3.5g of saturated fat per serving."
Both GeniSoy Chocolate Drenched Premium Soy Nuts and Extreme will be distributed through natural and health food channels, retail grocery natural food sets, and the company's website. MLO/GeniSoy claims to be the first US company to nationally market a full line of soy-based food products, including soy protein bars, shake powders, savoury crisps and roasted premium soy nuts.
MLO/GeniSoy's roots stretch back to the early 1960s, when founder Millard Williamson, food chemist and amateur body builder, was asked by friends to develop an effective, good tasting weight-training bar. The company continued to grow its line of high protein performance sports nutrition products and own label products in the US and worldwide.
In 1992, MLO was asked by a major international protein supplier to develop a soy based protein bar for prostate cancer research, sensitising the company to soy's significant health benefits, and resulting in the 1997 unveiling of the GeniSoy brand.
In 1999, the FDA stated that consuming 25 grams of soy protein per day as part of a low fat diet may reduce cholesterol and the resulting risk of heart disease. Studies suggest that increased soy protein consumption can help mitigate menopausal symptoms, bone loss associated with osteoporosis, and the idea that soy may have beneficial anticancer activity.
Unfortunately, traditional sources of soy protein have not appealed to the western palate. MLO/GeniSoy's mission is to provide convenient, delicious and affordable soy food products that make it easy and enjoyable to incorporate the benefits of soy in the average person's everyday diet.