Food allergies are tough to deal with. It seems like more and more people are allergic to something, and food catered to them is popping up all over the place.
Adding its mark to the market is WikiFoods Inc. The Cambridge-based food lab’s brand IncrEdible Innovations recently launched a line of frozen treats called Perfectly Free, which are low-calorie and and lacking eight major food allergens affecting consumers these days. However, it turns out that Perfectly Free is just a small part of the bigger WikiFoods’ picture.
Baby steps to sustainability
Perfectly Free are small balls of frozen goodness that are free of dairy, gluten, wheat, peanuts, soy, almonds, cashews, fish and shellfish. So what the heck is in Perfectly Free?
I met with WikiFoods’ Senior Scientist, Marty Kolewe, and SVP of Sales and Marketing, Jud Horner. They gave the me all of the details about the newly released product.
“It’s made out of a coconut cream base, which gives it the effect of ice cream while eliminating dairy,” Kolewe explained. “But it’s not like any ice cream you’ve seen. If you look at it, there’s a wrapper around it. It’s an all-natural wrapper made of fruit puree.”
Horner told me that the allergy-friendly aspect of these treats is already generating a positive response from many people, especially amongst mothers whose children no longer have to miss out on sweets during birthday parties.
Edible packaging is the real vision
As I mentioned before, there's more to WikiFoods than Perfectly Free. It’s really all about the wrapper - and all of the wrappers the company is intending to make, for that matter.
“Since the beginning, we’ve come up with the notion of edible packaging, and our founding mission in sustainability,” said Kolewe. “Look at nature: It packages food. Apples have peels. Coconuts have shells. So why don’t we try to mimic that with the food we sell?”
With Perfectly Free, the wrappers help with portion control and minimize mess. But WikiFoods has a broader vision of creating different kinds of edible wrappers to reduce the amount of food and beverage packaging we throw away, ultimately decreasing our negative environmental impact.
The long-term goal of the lab is to create an all-natural water bottle that wouldn’t contribute to non-biodegradable waste. But that product is very much still in the works and won’t be seen until years into the future. In the meantime, WikiFoods has the technology to change how we package other food now, so they’re putting it to use.
“People usually think that you’re bad guys if you’re playing with science and food."
“We came together with a cause: To drive sustainability through edible packaging and save the world,” said Kolewe. “But a business doesn’t work if it’s just that. That’s a lofty goal. Now I think we’ve come close to reaching a balance. We’ve had this idea, but we knew we’d never make money unless we did something with it.”
Pushing the perception of science in food
Basically, Perfectly Free is a translation of the water bottle concept WikiFoods has been working on and provides the company with cash flow. However, don’t think for a second that WikiFoods is cutting corners and pumping out crap to make money. All of the products they’re developing remain true to their mission of sustainability and health.
In fact, Kolewe said that they’re trying to defy conventional views of science’s role in the food industry.
“It’s an interesting problem we’re confronting” Kolewe started. “There’s a question of our perception of science; is it good or bad for food? Normally, there’s an association between science and processed foods. But science can actually be really, really good for food.”
“When people think of science, they immediately think synthetic,” he elaborated. “We use science, but our outcomes are all-natural. I’m looking at fruit skins, examining them under a microscope and trying to understand. An apple has skin, yes. But how does that happen? What can we take away from that to change our food?”
Horner agreed, adding that, “People usually think that you’re bad guys if you’re playing with science and food. But we’re not bad guys. Complete opposite.”
I think the most important thing keeping WikiFoods anchored is its overall mission. The lab is creating products for the sake of science, which is how it differs from major food manufacturers out there. The company seems to be pushing forward with a more emotionally and environmentally focused vision.
“A lot of the time, science in the food industry is trying to make money for companies,” Kolewe asserted. “That’s not our focus. We’re trying to make something that’s better for people.”
Images via Jud Horner.
