So says Dr. Chung, founder of Dr. Chung’s Food
Publisherof The Korea Post
Doyou want to celebrate your 100th birthday in good health? Of courseyou do. Years ago I met with Dr. Chai-won Chung, the founding chairman of Dr.Chung’s Food, better known for the popular ‘Vegimil’ which is soybean milkdeveloped by him.
Today Vegimil accounts for 48.6% of the total volume of vegetable milk sales in the entire Republic of Korea with its annual turnout totaling some 178.8 billion won (160 million dollar).
Thesoybean milk is consumed in large quantities not only in Korea but also in manyother countries of the world, including some 15 in Asia, Europe, West Africaand the Middle East.
Askedwhat made Vegemil so popular in the world as well as in Korea, Dr. Chung said, “Iwould say honesty on the part of the people who make it and the safety we havein mind for the consumers.”
Thefounding philosophy of Dr. Chung’s Food is ‘Dedication to the promotion of healthof the people.’ He also believes that good health of the people contributes tothe peace of the world. Here are excerpts from his statement published by thecompany he founded:
WhenI first became a doctor in 1937, my worries for the health of the children, whostruggled from milk allergies and lactose intolerance, started with a sense ofduty as a doctor. My eyes turned to lacking nutrients and inadequate medicalfacilities at the time. When I attended the 1st Asia Pediatric International Conferenceheld in Singapore in 1958, I made up my mind to learn advanced technology,which I did in the United King, the United States and Japan for six years in mylater years.
In1964, I finally disclosed the name of disease and causes of lactose intolerance.I realized the fact that it occurred to the children who could not digestlactose well, which was included in the breast milk, and that these childrenneeded to be fed nutritional substitute that did not include lactose.
Sobegan my study of the substitute milk using soy beans which contained and balancedthe three nutrients without lactose.
Fortwo years, I conducted animal feeding tests using soymilk made with groundsoybeans, and thereafter, I paved the way to developing Vegemil baby foodthrough steady clinical studies.
Since1968, we produced and supplied ‘Vegemil’ by cottage industry at the pediatrichospital but could not meet the demand. So we built a factory in Singal,Gyeonggi-do, which was equipped with a supply production scale of some 500,000bottles per day. However, it was still not sufficient and so we built a large-salesoymilk production facility in Cheongju in 1983 and produced 1.5 millionbottles of Vegemil per day.
Onthe other hand, occurrence of health problems due to westernized andinstantized eating habits created an opportunity for another challenge to me,who simply only thought about the lactose intolerance or milk allergies, and I madea great effort to solve them.
In1992, the ‘Vegemil C’ was developed and created by mixing fixed ratio ofsoymilk and milk on the second animal feeding tests at the Dr. Chung’s Food CentralResearch Center. It showed positive results in energy, endurance, intelligentetc. tests. The research paper was published at the international foodconference held in India and was favorably reviewed, receiving patents for foodinvention by the US and Austrian governments in May 1995.
Asthe role of various components, including proteins contained in soybean, newlystarted showing, new benefits of soybean components such as protein, fiber,lecithin, trypsin inhibitor etc. are being released, and continuous in-depthstudies are being done in the Western countries.
Forthe past 30 years, I have been advocating the important value of the soybeansalone but now I feel grateful that many colleagues are working with me on this,and I feel like soybeans met a Golden Age.
Fromthe 1st Soybean symposium held in Arizona, USA to the 5th Soybean symposiumheld in Orlando, Florida, USA in September 2003, the title of individually heldinternational Soybean symposiums constantly emphasizing the benefits thatsoybeans provided to humans, and about 250 papers have been published.
Ibelieve that these global flows will probably continue for the time being. Allour efforts for the promotion of health of the people around the world do nothave time to rest. To become a worldwide food company, I believe that it is ourduty to make endless efforts and develop better products for the human health,and I’m hoping that it will lead to realizing my simple and dream of worldpeace.