[3][4] There are early Western mentions of milk from the soy bean in June 1896 in the American Journal of Pharmacy and July 1897 in the United States Department of Agriculture's Farmer's Bulletin.

[3] The first soy milk and soy-based infant formula in the West was developed in 1909 by John Ruhräh, an American paediatrician.

[5] According to the Soyinfo Center, in the US the dairy industry put pressure on producers to call it something other than milk; one company used the term Soya Lac instead.

Cross, who became a vegan in 1942, wrote regularly about the issue to the society's magazine, the Vegetarian Messenger, arguing that dairy-milk production was cruel and exploitative.

In 1965 the society became a limited company, Plantmilk Ltd, with Cross as its first full-time employee, and began production of its milk, which it called Plamil, from a rented factory in Iver, Buckinghamshire.

In the 1980s, when his son Adrian was studying mechanical engineering at university, he asked him to come and help make vegan chocolate.

[16] The company sells a range of chocolate products to chocolate manufacturers, food industry, food service and wholesale under its Plamil Vegan Chocolat brand and website as well as a range of seasonal and non seasonal retail products under its Plamil So free brand and website.

[19] Products are available online from the company's website, Animal Aid and Amazon, and as of 2015 are sold by Waitrose and Holland & Barrett.