<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>EX-99.1
<SEQUENCE>2
<FILENAME>exhibit99-1_12784.txt
<DESCRIPTION>PRESS RELEASE DATED JULY 6, 2004
<TEXT>
                                                                    EXHIBIT 99.1
                                                                    ------------




PRESS RELEASE DATED JULY 6, 2004
--------------------------------

MORTON GROVE, Ill., July 6 -- Lifeway Foods, Inc. today announced its intent to
acquire a privately-held gourmet cream cheese producer based in the Philadelphia
area.

"This company produces and sells an excellent line of gourmet cream cheeses, as
well as products similar to our own farmer's cheese," said Julie Smolyansky,
Lifeway Foods' president. "This addition to Lifeway Foods provides the company
with several strategic advantages with the most important being that it now
gives us our own distribution system on the East Coast. This will allow us to
more cost effectively distribute Lifeway's existing product lines to these large
and important Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey markets. These are
significant Kefir markets and we believe they can also be important markets for
our LaFruta, Lo Carb Kefir and other product lines.

"This acquisition will also be a complementary addition to our already wonderful
line of probiotic, cultured dairy products and allow us to bring to our existing
customers another high-quality Lifeway dairy product. We expect to complete the
acquisition within the next 30-60 days," Smolyansky stated.

Lifeway is a manufacturer of cultured, probiotic and functional food products in
the health food industry, and is America's leading supplier of the cultured
dairy product known as kefir. The Company markets 12 flavors of kefir and does a
successful business exporting its products to Canada. The Company also
participates in the organic and soy markets with Lifeway Organic(TM), Organic
Kefir and Kefir Cheese, and America's first soy kefir called SoyTreat(TM).

For more information, contact Julie Smolyansky, President, Lifeway Foods, Inc.
at (847) 967-1010, e-mail at info@lifeway.net or visit the Company's website at
http://www.lifeway.net or http://www.kefir.com.

This document includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to
uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially
from these expectations due to changes in economic, business, competitive,
market and regulatory factors. More information about these factors and their
effects on company performance is contained in filings made by Lifeway Foods,
Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including, but not limited
to, the annual report on Form 10-K. Information regarding securities filings
made by Lifeway Foods, Inc. may be found by visiting the company's website at
http://www.kefir.com or http://www.lifeway.net.

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