Discovery

Since lecithin is an emulsifier, industrial lecithin manufacturers produce quantities of this chemical that are needed not just in food but also in products like paints and cosmetics. Coatings and printing depend on a strong supply of plant lecithin.

Although lecithin was discovered in 1805 by Maurice Gobley, referred to by him as “lekythos,” the Greek word for egg yolk, it wasn't until the 1930s that the process for isolating soy lecithin emerged. This process was a critically important step in the industrial production of vegetable oils, as prior to its discovery, soybean crushing and soy oil refining led to a huge quantity of foul-smelling, unusable sludge.

Popularity

This soy oil byproduct proved to greatly reduce the consumption of soybeans by making it easier to fully utilize the yield of each bushel. Lecithin, like many other newly discovered foods of the 1920s and 30s, would go on to become a minor superfood craze. By the 1960s and 70s, it was being hyped in cookbooks, not coincidentally promoted by lecithin manufacturers, as a panacea for any number of widely suffered maladies. It was easily the star of the health food circuit for many years.

The truth was much more complex than that, but lecithin manufacturers were invested in making sure that their product was taken up. A soybean health-food craze was also going on in America at the time, and lecithin as a primary byproduct of soya could only benefit. The American Lecithin Company was the primary lecithin manufacturer for the first decade or so of the existence of plant lecithin.

With the lecithin health-food craze now decades behind us, we can properly identify the benefits and uses of this powerful food additive. Lecithin helps reduce food waste and is crucial in many food and industrial products. To learn more, contact Clarkson Specialty Lecithins today!