American Natural Soy Continues to Grow 02.24.10

American Natural Soy is a seed processor that produces organic foods.  The company has perfected an extraction procedure to separate the oil in soybeans.  What makes this unique is the fact that American Natural Soy does it without chemicals.

American Natural Soy uses a process that involves heat and pressure to produce soy lecithin.  With no chemicals, the oil meets requirements for organic certification.

Because of that technology the company was contacted last year by a California based firm that asked if ANS would research and develop a way to extract oil from biomass, specifically algea.  According to company owner Mark Schuett the usage from this form of biomass could be used to make anything from jet fuel to diesel fuel.  Schuett also claims that from the time the algae goes from the immaculate tank until harvest is a ten-day period.  Schuett also was proud that the tyechnology is a renewable source and could eventually be utilized or porduced in any state.

At this time last year the company was planning on developing a Canola crush section to its facility to make Canola Oil.

The summer saw the completion of that project with the construction of a three-story cooker and a new tower with a removable roof at the faciltiy.  But plans for the Canola crush were placed on hold when the company ventured into this two-year research project.

The company has been a part of the Cherokee community since 2000.  At that time, Schuett was a farmer who went into organic seed processing.  Schuett was hoping that a local plant would encourage smaller family farms in the area to go into organic farming.  The increase of competition from large-scale farming operations continued to grow and Schuett thought that a local plant might offset this trend.

At that time the building that currently houses the business was remodeled and 2001 the company began with its first crush.  Since that time, the company has seen steady growth and has the potential to reach out of the Midwest to reach an even bigger market.

In 2007, the company was contacted by Estee Lauder Company to be a supplier for the Origins Organics line of beauty products.  After a couple of years looking, a researcher at Origins found ANS on the Internet.  After it was determined that the soy lecithin was extracted without chemicals, ANS started to turn out four drums of soy lecithin ready to ship to an Origins production plant.  In November of 2007, the Origins Organics hit store shelves in the US, and was launched in Europe and Asia soon after.