Jose Antonio Ortega Bonet, 79, founder of Sazon Goya Food Co., a major Latino food company, died Saturday at his South Florida home of lung cancer, said his wife of 55 years, Lucila.
Ortega grew his business and began a partnership with New Jersey- based food giant Goya Foods in the 1960s.
Sazon Goya is a special mix of seasonings that adds flavor and color to food.
Ortega was born in Havana in 1929. He moved his family in 1963 to Puerto Rico, where he started a successful career in the food business that eventually became Sazon Goya.
Virginia H. Holsinger, 72, whose research led to the development of low-lactose milk, reduced-fat cheese and low-lactose powdered milk used in military field rations, died in Fairfax, Va., on Sept. 4 of breast cancer.
Among other achievements, she created a whey-soy drink mix that was shelf-stable and nutritious enough to be used as a replacement for milk in international food-donation programs. She also developed a grain blend that, when mixed with water, can create a porridge in emergency situations such as famines, droughts or other natural disasters.
“Holsinger’s efforts have helped feed needy children and families around the world,” said Floyd Horn, who was administrator of the Agricultural Research Service in 2000, when Holsinger was inducted into its Science Hall of Fame.
Holsinger, the former head of the dairy-products research unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Wyndmoor, Pa., developed the enzyme treatment that makes milk digestible by people with lactose intolerance, research that resulted in the commercial product Lactaid.
Her work also led to the development of a mozzarella cheese with 50 percent less fat, which is used in school lunches.
