A Breathtaking Success Story

Entrepreneur Taeko Bybee, who lives in the United States, has been putting odorless garlic on supermarket shelves since 1987.

Isao Sakai, an agriculturalist in Tokyo, invented a solution in which regular garlic is soaked--and loses its smell.

Bybee’s 12-employee company, Jewel Rina Inc., sells 1 million two-head packages per year of Sakai’s product to 37 supermarket chains. That compares to 1 billion heads of regular garlic sold in the United States. At $1.60 per package, Sakai’s garlic costs twice what regular garlic does.

Jewel Rina gets letters every day from satisfied customers, including some who say the odorless garlic saved their marriage. “Now we can enjoy the flavor of garlic in our favorite dishes and still enjoy kissing afterward,” a New York woman wrote.