The Chobani Food Incubator helps young food startups off their feet - these are some of the brands it helped to boost

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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.
• The program has helped many great brands get their start, including big names like Banza, Kettle & Fire, and Chloe's Fruit.

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.

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:

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