Trish Thomas and Nichole Wilson began creating allergen-free snack brand Every Body Eat in 2017 after meeting at a book fair at their children's school. Thomas suffers from an autoimmune disease and Wilson's family has lactose and other intolerance issues. With trouble finding foods that worked for their families, the two decided to embark on a journey to create a snack brand that's free from the 14 most common allergens, as well as corn and sugar.
They officially launched the startup out of a small prototype kitchen in Evanston on March 1, 2020.
"On March 11 we shut everything down," Thomas said. "We moved 900 cases into our living room and prayed."
Despite the unfortunate timing of launching a business at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Every Body Eat has continued to grow, with its crackers now sold in over 700 U.S. stores including Whole Foods, Wegman's and Mariano's. The startup's investors include Cleveland Avenue, the VC fund from former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson, and Kansas City-based 1248 Holdings.
In November, Every Body Eat won first place and $1 million at Grow-NY, a food innovation and agriculture competition in New York.
The momentum comes as the startup prepares to open a new 30,000-square-foot manufacturing space in Chicago to ramp up production and enter more stores, said Thomas, who's also a professor at Northwestern University's Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Every Body Eat makes snack thins, which are square snack crackers, and "crispbreads," which are longer crackers that hold toppings or spreads. Its "Cheese-less" snack thin is like a Cheez-It without the cheese, and is the startup's most popular flavor, Thomas said.
The startup's plant-based snacks are designed for virtually any dietary restriction. They're non-GMO, vegan, kosher and free of dairy, soy, eggs, corn and nuts. Every Body Eat's goal is to create a snack that, as its name suggests, it available to all, regardless of one's dietary needs.
"Success for us is being able to walk into a Super Bowl party someday and everybody can actually eat and share the food," Thomas said.
Every Body Eat has had a longer road to market that other snack brands, Thomas explained, as it's taken extra steps to ensure there's no cross contamination in its manufacturing. The startup also refused to compromise on taste, she explained, which is something that other "free from" snack brands often lack.
"It’s really hard to find allergen-free food that tastes good that isn’t jacked with sugar and corn," she said.
Every Body Eat's flavoring method is a trade secret, Thomas said, but it involves adding flavor to the inside of the cracker, rather than on top like other brands.
Chicago has the largest food and beverage manufacturing employment in the U.S. and the biggest food and beverage manufacturing economy by output. It also ranks No. 1 in U.S. with $180 billion in processed food sales, according to World Business Chicago. The city's standing as a food hub has the potential to make it an epicenter in the "free from" space as well, Thomas said. Chicago was the birthplace of Enjoy Life Foods, a pioneer in the allergen-free food space with its better-for-you snacks. The company was bought by Mondelez in 2015. Other allergen-free startups have also popped up in recent years, like Blake’s Seed Based, which makes a line of snack bars made from pumpkin, sunflower and flax seeds. The startup, founded by a former University of Wisconsin-Madison linebacker, is backed by Kraft Heinz.
"We could create an innovation cluster [in Chicago] around free from foods," Thomas said.
