Little Soya

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Little Soya was a gluten free soy sauce brand owned by Little Products Co., LLC, based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Gary T. Murphy in 2008 when the Caesars Palace Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada requested his company find a premium soy sauce in a fish-shaped container for its new buffet and room service guests. [1] The packaging was fish-shaped and refillable. [2]

Retail outlets included Cost Plus World Market, Safeway Inc., Vons, King Kullen, Stop & Shop, Big Y, Phoenicia, and Spec's Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods, among others. [3] It also had a presence in Las Vegas, being used at the MGM Grand, Palms Casino Resort, Luxor, Station Casinos, TAO Beach and Marquee. [3] In 2012, the company secured a deal with Norway's Harlem Foods for an initial order of 1.3 million units and another order for 1.9 million units. [4] Other possible international accounts included distribution deals in Australia, South America, and Germany. [3] Domestically, in 2012, Little Soya signed a deal with United Natural Foods, based out of Providence, Rhode Island. United Natural Foods is one of the nation's largest food distributors. [4]

In 2013, Little Soya began to pivot to handle more and more food service orders for chefs and restaurants around the United States by offering their new 5 gallon and half gallon containers used for cooking in the back of the house. [5] This came as a result of chefs tasting Little Soya in Las Vegas and at various grocery stores and preferring it over other brands. [6] Little Soya was used at restaurants around the US, such as Uchi and Uchiko, Barnaby's, Underbelly, Benjy's, and Snap Kitchen in the Texas market, and TAO, Nobu, Sweet Chick, and Contra NYC in the New York market. [7]

In 2014, Little Soya soy sauce was set to launch on an unmanned flight on an Ariane 5 rocket to send supplies to the International Space Station. Vickie Kloeris, manager of the NASA Space Food Systems Laboratory, had said that one of the US astronauts had complained during his last debriefing (after coming down from a mission on the ISS), that whenever he opened a soy sauce packet in space, it would spew all over. [8] [9]

On March 31, 2016, the closure of the company was announced via their website. [10]

In August 2025, the soy sauce fish packets were banned in South Australia in response to environmental concerns. [11]

References

  1. ↑ "September 2012 by 002houston magazine - Issuu". issuu.com. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  2. ↑ Knowlton, Andrew (2012-07-20). "Soy Sauce Just Got Adorable". Bon Appetit. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  3. 1 2 3 "Houston's Little Soya set for major expansion - Houston Business Journal". Archived from the original on 2012-07-03.
  4. 1 2 "Little Soya inks international deal - Houston Business Journal". Archived from the original on 2012-06-16.
  5. ↑ "NRA Show 2013". Archived from the original on 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  6. ↑ ""Little Soya" Premium Soy Sauce". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "Restaurants to find Little Soya in!". Foursquare.com. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  8. ↑ Kaplan, David (July 22, 2014). "Local food company Little Soya is bound for space". Houston Chronicle . Retrieved 11 November 2025.
  9. ↑ Basu, Tanya (4 February 2015). "The Mysterious, Murky Story Behind Soy-Sauce Packets". The Atlantic . Retrieved 11 November 2025.
  10. ↑ "LittleSoya.com".
  11. ↑ "Why Are Soy Sauce Fish Being Banned?". Behind The News. 2025-08-22. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
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