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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:
Banza
Banza
Buy Banza pasta here: Amazon | Thrive Market| Walmart
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.
Partake Foods
Partake Foods/Instagram
Buy Partake Foods Cookies here: Amazon
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.
Supernatural Kitchen
Supernatural
Buy Supernatural Kitchen pantry staples here: Amazon
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.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – rrosmarin@businessinsider.com (Remi Rosmarin)