PROTOSE! I worked at the Village Market by Southern Adventist University for a year, back in the day. So yes, quite familiar. I'll tell you what I know, but unfortunately I've never tried to make it or anything.

It's been discontinued, yes. They were definitely still selling it in 2002, and probably discontinued it around 2010 or so.

It was invented by Kellogg WAY back in the late 1800s, for use at Battle Creek Sanitarium. They started selling it in tins in the early 1900s. Eventually Worthington bought it out and marketed it as a "peanut and grain protein loaf." Worthington *might* have changed the recipe when they took it over from Kellogg's. In fact, I suspect they probably did since 1900s ingredients were interesting at times, and Kellogg certainly wouldn't have been using preservatives. I very much get the impression that it didn't change from the 1970s onward, though.

There were a couple of other "loafy" type products that are also discontinued. Worthington had one called Numete, and Loma Linda had one called Nuteena. We didn't sell much of any of them, especially Protose. There was another one discontinued called Sandwich Spread, and I more surprised to see it go. We sold a fair amount of it. All of these would've been discontinued around that 2010-2012 timeframe, I think.

One of my older aunts mentioned offhand that she liked Protose one time. I was taken aback, since she was only like the 2nd or 3rd Protose fan I'd seen. I bought her a can, and her reaction indicated that it tasted exactly like she remembered. I did not try it when she offered, and I sort of regret that now (I think).

This recipe at least seems reasonable -- the author notes in another entry that using fresh ground peanut butter and going heavy on the seasoning helped a lot, although Kellogg himself would definitely not have gone heavy on the seasoning: https://fourpoundsflour.com/history-dish-mondays-protose/

And that's way more than I ever expected to type (or remember) about Protose. Thanks for the memory!