History

When Mrs.Marian Oxley began going blind, doctors believed her illness was a form of rheumatoid arthritis. That diagnosis, however, indicated that she had an allergic problem with eggs. Because of this allergy, eggs had to be eliminated from her diet, but she found it difficult because she often used eggs as an ingredient in her cooked and baked foods. She then began to look for ways to replace eggs in her baking.
In 1977, Mrs. Oxley decided to develop her own food binder, one with a long enough shelf life. Just after retiring as a public health nurse in her seventies, Mrs. Oxley began marketing her food binder through her own company, Spring Hill Foods.
Under Spring Hill Foods, she sold and originally named her product Egz-Actor (since it acted like an egg when it was not), which is now marketed under the name “Instead of Eggs.”

In 2019 Instead of Eggs was taken over by marketing professor Dr. Kimberly Pichot and Andrews University Enactus. All operations, such as manufacturing and assembly of products, are run by Enactus students and housed at the Andreasen Center for Wellness at Andrews.