Making and marketing vegetarian foods—a business related to the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s health-promotion message, yet one of the movement’s “best kept secrets,” as it has been called—is having a positive effect in many nations. With 40 health food companies scattered in various parts of the world, the church’s International Health Food Association oversees this “major player” in what is becoming a worldwide health-conscious trend. 

In Germany, for example, 40 percent of the breakfast cereal market is produced by the church’s DE-VAU-GE, a market share that surpasses Kellogg’s and Nestle combined. During the past decade, DE-VAU-GE quintupled its production and its staffing went from 360 employees to more than 1,200. DE-VAU-GE also specializes in other natural foods, with well-known brands such as granoVita, EDEN, Linusit, Bruno Fischer and Evers, and is the largest health food producer in Germany, with a product line of more than 600 items.

In Australia, the health food industry is interwoven with the church’s presence. Ellen White, one of the founders of the Adventist Church, spent several years in the South Pacific and, according to Gerry Karst, vice president of the IHFA and chairman of the IHFA board, the success of the Adventist health food industry can perhaps be traced to White’s guidance.

The church in Australia owns Sanitarium Health Food Company, which controls about 16 percent of the cereal market in that country, 40 percent in New Zealand, and owns five of the top 10 selling cereal brands in Australia, including Weet-Bix, the most recognized brand of breakfast cereal and Australia’s most popular cereal for more than 30 years.

Sanitarium also produces So Good, Australia’s favorite soymilk, and holds a substantial market share in the sale of sandwich spreads, soy products, cereal, and meat substitutes, and exports its products to 20 countries around the world. Sanitarium employs approximately 1,500 people across Australia and New Zealand in nine sites throughout the two countries.

“Institutions such as our Adventist hospitals and Adventist health foods are the credible face of the church in the community, because they actually cater for the needs of the community in the public arena,” says David Iredale, Sanitarium’s chief operating officer.

Iredale says that in Australia there is not so much an increase in the number of people becoming vegetarians as there are fewer and fewer people eating red meat—about 60 percent of the Australian population are “meat reducers” who are looking for healthier choices. Sanitarium is currently negotiating with McDonald’s in both Australia and New Zealand for a launch of a veggie burger—a meat substitute that Sanitarium would manufacture.

Sanitarium is listed in “Business Review Weekly” magazine as one of the top 150 Australian companies and is one of the last Australian privately owned health food companies still operating.

In Sweden, Svenska Nutana is a church-run health food importer and distribution company that also exports foods to Finland, Norway and Denmark.

“The world as a whole has taken on board the healthy lifestyle concept,” says Ole Pedersen, Svenska Nutana president. “The vegetarian trend has gained momentum in many parts of the world. In Europe and Sweden in particular, this is largely due to awareness of ‘food problems’ and a strong animal welfare focus.

“More and more people are interested in vegetarian foods [even if they are not] full-time vegetarians,” he says. “The industry has changed very much over the past decade with more players and multinational companies looking at the market as well. The future holds more opportunity for our church industry. We will need to find new avenues to our goals. As markets mature and big companies enter, we need to be there at the forefront of new [business] developments.

“The Adventist Church in Sweden has, through Svenska Nutana, contributed significantly to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle for the general public in Sweden through its sponsorship of events [that] focus on health,” Pedersen adds.

The Adventist Church’s worldwide health food industry started in North America with brothers John Harvey and William K. Kellogg’s discovery and contribution to healthy breakfast cereals. John Harvey Kellogg, an Adventist medical doctor, made the Battle Creek Sanitarium, an institute offering Adventist theology, health foods and open-air exercise, into an internationally-renowned Adventist health institution. The “San,” which began as the Western Health Reform Institute of Battle Creek, was started by Ellen White in 1866. John Harvey Kellogg, who became physician-in-chief of the institution 10 years later, provided his patients with a healthy diet and taught ways to live a healthy lifestyle, though some of his teachings were often radical and controversial.

One of John Harvey Kellogg’s first marketing successes was granola. He also produced peanut butter, as well as meat and coffee substitutes. The products were manufactured and sold by the Sanitarium Food Company established by John Harvey in 1877. His foods were instantly successful and he hired his younger brother, William, as business manager. John Harvey and William soon discovered that wheat could be flaked and they began producing whole grain cooked cereals. John Harvey later launched Sanitas Food Company, which he considered to be part of Sanitarium.

John Harvey did not plan to profit from his business, but saw its work as support for the church. He did not want to sponsor an extensive promotional campaign in order to increase sales, though his brother pushed for it. William decided to experiment on his own and, in 1906, he invented corn flakes and organized his own company—the Toasted Corn Flake Company.

John Harvey later renamed the Sanitarium Food Company and Sanitas Food Company the “Kellogg Food Company,” bringing all food products he was associated with under one organization.

As many as 40 companies competed with the Kellogg Food Company, one of which was C.W. Post Co., a major competitor also located in Battle Creek.

In 1907 John Harvey Kellogg was dismissed from the church because of his radical theological teachings, but the brothers’ expertise in the health food industry prompted other members around the world to emulate their example.

For the Adventist Church, the health food industry provides an opportunity for outreach. When the IHFA met recently in Tanzania, they restudied the philosophy of health food ministry as outlined in “The Health Food Ministry,” a book by Ellen White. “[The book is] a compilation of guidance and instruction she’s given about how the health food industry ought to be operated,” says Karst. “It gives very good counsel.”

The IHFA, made up of health food industry personnel and several regional church officers, recently took a second look at where the church has been going with the health food industry, Karst adds. They asked themselves, “Have we become too commercialized and are allowing the market to drive what it is we are producing? Or are we producing based on the principles outlined in the church’s teachings?”

Karst notes, “There was a strong affirmation that it needed to be a continued outreach in ministry on behalf of the church.”

Martin Haase, communication director for the church in the Euro-Africa administrative region, agrees. God is blessing DE-VAU-GE and they are placing ads for Bible studies and receiving a significant response, he says.

A guideline that the IHFA follows is to establish factories in developing countries, producing simple, inexpensive food, Karst says. These industries are supported by the bigger ones. A small Tanzanian factory is one example, started when the IHFA decided to fund a mission project.

“They produce only the basic kinds of foods that are eaten in the country,” Karst explains. Because a lot of corn in Tanzania is micronutrient-deficient, corn meal and flower are being fortified with micronutrients.

The IHFA, begun in the mid 1960s, has started an accreditation process. “A team goes to the factories and looks at production, safety and mission—how closely are they aligned with the mission of the church and counsel that’s provided? This is to keep us mission-focused and looking to the future,” Karst explains. “The projections in a lot of these countries look good.”

Annually, about $10 million of industry revenue finds its way into some part of the mission of the church. “Although many people don’t see it, don’t know it, there’s a significant amount of money that goes into the mission of the church because these factories exist,” says Karst.

A focus of use for these mission funds is turning toward the 10/40 window, a term used to describe a geographical rectangle that extends from West Africa, through the Middle East, and into Asia, where 60 percent of the world’s population lives with only 1 percent Christian. “There may be some countries where we can start some sort of food operation where you can’t go in as missionaries,” Karst says.

There are many other countries where the Adventist Church operates health food factories. Thailand’s Mission Health Foods controls 2 percent of dairy milk sales in that country and has contracted with Sanitarium. Dried dairy milk is imported from New Zealand and mixed, packaged and sold as whole, skim and flavored powdered milk in Thailand.

In Korea, Sahmyook is the leading manufacturer and distributor of soymilk with a 30 percent market share. Soymilk is primarily sold in individual sized pouches of various flavors.

The Adventist Church in Inter-America operates 14 production plants in various countries with coordination from the church’s division office in Miami, Florida. The largest plant, near Mexico City, produces 3,000 tons of meat analogs, which is sold to meat producers who then mix it with hamburger. Church leaders in that region say this process improves the quality of the meat by adding soybean protein, fiber content, and a variety of vitamins that are not present in meat.

In Japan the church has a small factory that is financially suffering. It produces meat analogs and baked goods.

Granix, in Argentina, produces meat analogs and some 1,500 tons of saltine-like crackers each month, both salted and no-sodium. 

How much visibility the Adventist Church has because of its health food industries depends on how factories market their products and how they align themselves with the church, Karst says. In Australia, Sanitarium Health Foods is associated with the church and the brand name is known across the country. “There are possibilities that in other parts of the world there are factories that don’t focus as much on that aspect, but the potential is there,” adds Karst.

The Adventist Church’s combined health food factories worldwide produced health products worth US$529 million in 2002.