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The Chobani Food Incubator helps young food startups off their feet - these are some of the brands it helped to boost
The Chobani Food Incubator helps young food startups off their feet - these are some of the brands it helped to boost
Remi RosmarinMar 5, 2019, 05:00 IST
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Chobani is one of the best-selling yogurt brands in the country, but it wasn't long ago that the company was just a small startup.
The Chobani Food Incubator is part of the brand's broader mission to bring better food to more people by providing socially-responsible food entrepreneurs with invaluable experience, mentorship, and resources to grow their brands.
If you're walking through the dairy aisle, it's hard to miss Chobani yogurt. With over $2 billion dollars in sales, Chobani holds the title of the top-selling Greek yogurt brand in the United States. With all of that acclaim, it's hard to believe that fourteen years ago, Chobani was a spur-of-the-moment idea.
In 1994 Hamdi Ulukaya immigrated to the United States from Turkey, where he had grown up making yogurt and cheese. While living in upstate New York, he came across a flyer for an abandoned yogurt factory. Others cautioned him against buying it, but Ulukaya had a gut feeling that he could make something out of this space. In 2005, he took out a loan from the Small Business Administration and bought the plant - in 2007, Chobani hit the shelves.
Breaking into the food and beverage industry, let alone becoming successful, can be a challenge - but Ulukaya's intuition and business savvy made Chobani a success story, both as a startup and a manifestation of the American Dream.
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Since it's inception, Chobani has been committed to making better quality food accessible to more people. As an expansion of that mission, Ulukaya dreamed up the Chobani Food Incubator - a program that helps fledgling food startups get their feet off the ground. The goal is to help socially-responsible food entrepreneurs grow their business, bringing better products to communities across the country. Equity-free capital, food industry education, office space in the Chobani NYC office, and a network of like-minded peers are just some of the perks. Over the past few years, the program has churned out some food startups that are doing some pretty cool things, like making pasta out of chickpeas and sprinkles free of chemical dyes.
Here are 7 innovative food startups that Chobani Food Incubator helped get their start:
Banza makes a better-for-you alternative to your favorite pastas. Using chickpeas in place of wheat, Banza noodles have double the protein, four times the fiber, and almost half the net carbs of traditional pasta. Time Magazine named Banza one of the top 25 inventions of 2015 and it's no wonder why. You can find all of the classic noodle shapes, from rigatoni to linguine, along with a healthier take on boxed macaroni and cheese. Banza also recently released a rice alternative. If you haven't tried it yet, you'll be surprised how much it tastes like the real deal, especially with some sauce on top.
When you have food allergies, experiences that are meant to be enjoyed can be anxiety-inducing — parties and potlucks, for example, when there's plenty of food with who-knows-what inside. Partake Foods was born out of a mother's frustration to find safe and delicious snacks for her daughter, who has multiple food allergies. Partake Foods started making allergy-friendly cookies (free from the top 14 allergens) that also happen to be non-GMO, kosher, vegan, and gluten-free. With all of those labels, you may question the taste factor, but the cookies come in delicious flavors like Birthday Cake, Carrot Cake, and Double Chocolate Chip. Even if you don't have food allergies, you can enjoy these sweet treats that are perfectly portioned for snack time.
It seems that almost everything these days has natural alternatives — you can find laundry detergent, surface cleaners, even diapers made with clean ingredients. It's surprising then, that less than one percent of craft baking products (think: sprinkles, food colorings, etc.) have no natural alternatives — in fact, lots of baking ingredients are actually filled with things you'd probably rather not ingest, like artificial colors and preservatives. Supernatural Kitchen wants to clean up baking pantry staples, so you can still enjoy baking creatively, while doing better for your body, too. You'll find food colorings and soy-free sprinkles free of synthetic dyes and made of simple, plant-based ingredients you can actually pronounce — like turmeric, beets, and spirulina extract.
Bone broth has got a lot of traction these days. Each serving is full of amino acids, minerals, protein, and collagen — and people swear by drinking the nutrient-rich broth to heal a range of ills, including inflammation and upset skin. Kettle & Fire is shelf-stable bone broth made with grass-fed bones and other organic ingredients. Kettle & Fire offers chicken and beef-based broths — sip them on their own for a nutrient-dense snack or use them as a base for making soups and sauces. Now, Kettle & Fire has expanded to selling packaged soups made with their signature bone broth formula. If bone broth is new to you, head over to the Kettle & Fire website, where you can take a quick questionnaire to learn about how to best fit bone broth into your diet and lifestyle.
Walking down the inner aisles of a grocery store can be overwhelming — there are so many choices of sauces, condiments, and dips from the familiar to the ones you've never even heard of before. Jar Goods stemmed from a desire to become an "inner aisle disruptor", with a mission that was simple — make delicious, high-quality pantry staples that can be used for a myriad of dishes. Jar Goods is for the busy home chef who values convenience, but also cares about superior taste and quality. Those discerning cooks may not have time to make their sauces from scratch, but they can count on Jar Goods to add healthy, homemade flavor with products like the Classic Red, Vegan Vodka, and Beet & Basil Pesto.
Matcha is having a moment. Not only does it taste good, but the combination of caffeine and antioxidants help increase focus and provide long-lasting energy. MatchaBar started out in New York in 2014 as the first matcha cafe in the country. People were loving the products so much in stores, that the founders set out to bring their matcha to the masses. So, if you can't make it to one of the NYC- or LA-based cafes, you can enjoy one of MatchaBar's bottled drinks instead. MatchaBar sells tins of premium matcha powder, bottled matcha beverages in a variety of refreshing flavors, and a fizzy, matcha-based energy drink. All of these products are made with premium, ceremonial-grade matcha sourced from a family business in Japan — the powder is even blended by a tea master in Japan.
Finding a healthy way to appease your sweet tooth can be a challenge, but it's one Chloe's Fruit has decidedly solved. It began as a soft serve shop in New York, where Chloe's churned out traditional soft serve with a healthier twist. Noticing that consumers everywhere were looking for clean, but delicious treats, Chloe's expanded to grocery shelves. Chloe's Fruit popsicles are made with the same three simple ingredients — fruit, water, and a touch of cane sugar. The pops are creamy, sweet, and taste so refreshing — but they're just 60 calories. They're a sweet treat that kids and adults alike can feel great about indulging in.
