more tofurky info

[Guest guest]

This is copied from the tofurky.com website. I had no idea that hexane

was used to extract soy protein. It bothers me, especially because I

always go out of my way to buy expeller-pressed oils instead of hexane

extracted ones. I'm glad to hear that Turtle Island is aware of the

health implictions and making changes based on it.

 

 

" Long time Tofurky Feast customers will notice a significant change in the

Tofurky Feast this year. We have replaced the 12 oz package of Tempeh

Drummettes with a full pound of Cranberry/Apple Potato Dumplings. There

are several reasons for this change and economics is not one of them.

 

When the Tempeh Drummettes were first created in 1995, we had different

attitudes towards ingredients than we have now. With our marketplace

becoming more and more dominated by huge corporations we notice that

nearly all new soy products are being made with soy powders and

granules(Isolated Soy Protein and Textured Vegetable Protein being the

most common). Whereas these products have their place, there are aspects

of them we don’t like. Foremost of our concerns is the use of the solvent

hexane, an ecotoxin, which is used to extract the protein from the

soybean.

 

Even though most of this highly flammable solvent evaporates out, leaving

“only” a residue level in the parts per million or greater, we have made a

company wide decision to avoid the use of these products until we learn

more about them. Since the Tempeh Drummettes contained a blend of Tempeh,

a traditionally processed soy product which does not involve hexane, and

soy protein isolate and concentrate, we felt like we needed to either

reformulate the recipe or replace the product. Our attempts at

reformulation were unsuccessful yet are ongoing.

 

At this point we met Joe Ertman, a Perogi and Dumpling maker from nearby

Sumner, Washington. He brought down these incredible Cranberry/Apple

Dumplings that quite frankly, amazed everyone here at Turtle Island. We

really feel like these are an excellent addition to the Tofurky Feast and

are especially delightful when served with the gravy.

 

In this vein, we offer the 2003 version of the Tofurky Vegetarian Feast.

We welcome your questions and comments on this change and are really

interested to hear which option you prefer. Please only vote once,

preferably after you have tried the new Cranberry/Apple Potato Dumplings.

 

And if you really crave the Drummettes, we do sell them separately at

select stores or here on our website.

 

Happy Tofurky Day to all,

Seth Tibbott, Founder and President "