It's Trendy, Tasty and Tofutti

By J.D. Reed

The summer's hot frozen dessert is no-cream ice cream

Sure, once upon a time, they all used to scream for ice cream. But many Americans today are more likely to pine for the impossible: a tasty, low-cal, no-cholesterol, nondairy frozen delight--and make it all natural too, please. Only a dream, say cynics. Tofutti, says David Mintz. Bless you, say many converts who believe Mintz's Tofutti may be the answer. Indeed, Americans are licking up 40,000 gal. a week of his chilly concoction. Production has nearly doubled in the past month. Move over Frusen Gladje and frozen yogurt; this is the summer of Tofutti.

At prices ranging from 75-c- for a 4-oz. soft-whipped portion to $2.49 for a hard-packed pint, Tofutti is selling briskly from pushcarts and at custard shops and specialty stores almost all the way across the country. Strangely, it has not caught on yet in Southern California, normally a hotbed of food fads. But Tofutti is moving smoothly at chic Neiman-Marcus in Dallas and at Bloomingdale's in New York City. Haagen-Dazs, the designer-ice cream folks, will begin nationwide distribution to retailers later this month. On Wall Street, stock in Mintz's Tofu Time, Inc., which went public in December, has tripled in value and split.

This epicurean success rests on an improbable ingredient: a bland, gelatinous, soybean derivative called tofu, which many consider an affront to the taste buds. "Tofu is like eating your pillow," pronounces Washington-based Researcher Lisa Frangos. But she likes Tofutti.

Creator Mintz, 53, is not surprised. A former caterer and a devout Orthodox Jew, Mintz suspected eight years ago that tofu could be the milk substitute he needed to make an ice-cream-like dessert that would not violate religious prohibitions against the mixing of meat and dairy products at the same meal. "It didn't come out right at the outset," he admits.

But he kept trying: "I am a guinea pig with a hell of a palate." He was finally satisfied in 1980. Mintz keeps his formula a secret but admits to contemplating odd flavors like mango and even pineapple-yam. Says he: "My wife Rachel and I live and breathe Tofutti."

While available in plain vanilla, Tofutti best masks the aftertaste of its novel ingredient with strident flavors such as banana-pecan and forest maple. In Texas, the bestseller is made by swirling peanut butter and chocolate flavors together into something that tastes like a Reese's Cup. Aficionados swear Tofutti is better than ice cream. Says one: "If you eat it too fast, you even get the headache."

That is about the only unwelcome side effect. Tofutti is a dieter's and a cardiologist's dream. Blended with high-fructose corn sweeteners, it contains 128 calories in four ounces, about the same as frozen yogurt, but fewer than the 250 or more for premium ice cream. NutraSweet, the sugar substitute, may soon be used to further reduce calories. Because Tofutti is both butterfat and cholesterol-free, Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach even serves the confection to heart patients. It contains no lactose, good news for the millions of Americans who suffer an adverse reaction to milk-based products.

At the Schnelli Deli in Detroit, blacks, who have a higher incidence of lactose sensitivity than whites, are among the best customers.

There are other frozen soy-based competitors. Ice Bean, for example, has been sold in health-food emporiums since 1976, and a new effort is reported to be in the works in Atlanta. But Tofutti seems to have the edge, and Mintz is looking to new horizons. He is experimenting with tofu-based drinks and a vegetable salad.

His next obsession is a nonmeat burger.

Says the tycoon of tofu: "I am close to this tremendous breakthrough. It is made of tofu and has the taste and smell of a beefburger." Given his marketing skills, it may not be long before Tofutti addicts sit down to the main course: a Big MacFutti.

--By J.D. Reed.

-- Reported by Raji Samghabadi/New York, with other bureaus

With reporting by Raji Samghabadi