Meenal Lele didn’t know that food allergies in children could be, to a large degree, prevented or mitigated. By the time she did, it was too late to introduce her oldest son to those now recommended early introduction guidelines. He developed eczema at 11 months of age and soon tested positive for multiple food allergies.
He’s hardly alone. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 8% of American children – or roughly 1 in 13 – have a food allergy, most commonly to milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, soy, peanuts or tree nuts.
Not long thereafter, Lele, a chemical engineering graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, began researching the prevalence of food allergies, which would ultimately lay the groundwork for her Philadelphia startup, Lil Mixins.
Not wanting her second child to face the same issues, Lele researched and eventually discovered a 2015 publication of a randomized clinical trial showing that many peanut allergies could be prevented through early introduction. Such studies were part of the basis for the American Academy of Pediatrics's 2017 guidelines for “infant-safe” allergen introduction, specifically around peanut protein. In its guidelines, the academy recommended highest-risk infants be introduced to peanuts in a safe form as early as 4 to 6 months of age alongside allergy tests. The new guidelines were a reversal of the previous standard, which had been rescinded in 2008, that children shouldn’t have peanuts until age 3.
Similarly, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology made recommendations about early introduction for peanut and/or egg allergy.
Unlike many parents, Lele had an extensive background in science and medical device development to lean on as she navigated the findings. After graduating from Penn, Lele helped launch orthopedic company Knee Creations and later was the first employee at startup Velano Vascular.
Undertaking the allergen introduction process for her second child was something of an aha moment. “I have an engineering degree. I can figure out how to do this stuff, and even then, it was really hard,” she recalled.
Recognizing that parents often have constraints in daily life that make early allergen introduction difficult or impossible, Lele got to thinking there had to be a better way. She herself faced difficulties when spending multiple days a week away from her children and couldn’t prepare those foods.
“The science doesn't actually solve anything,” she said. Its practical application would. So she began searching for ways to create a shelf-stable product that could be easily given to young children.
“That's really what Lil Mixins was designed to solve,” she said.
Lil Mixins was incorporated in September 2017, but Lele didn’t take it on full time until 2019. During that time, she sought manufacturers and navigated supply chain, while also figuring out how to market and sell the product.
The company started with its peanut powder “because that’s where the best clinical data was,” Lele said. Products have since expanded to include a tree nut powder and a well cooked egg powder. “It's the protein you're chasing after,” Lele said, noting because of that, the egg powder creation took upwards of four years. It hit the market last year.
Most recently, Lil Mixins released a breastfeeding probiotic duo this month, which Lele likens to a “lock and key” method, where both mother and baby take components that then work together.
Lil Mixins powders are available in individual packets as well as in a container and can be mixed with foods such as purees. The baby probiotic is in drop form, while the probiotic for the mother comes in a capsule.
Products are manufactured throughout the U.S. and Lil Mixins has landed a partnership with Target. Sales are currently an even mix of direct-to-consumer and wholesale, she said, with products in about 300 Target stores around the country and available through its website. Lil Mixins also sells internationally to consumers.
To launch and scale the business, Lil Mixins raised an undisclosed amount of early funding from friends and family and may look to other sources of funding as they grow. “You can bootstrap a lot of things. We didn't, and I'm very thankful for the friends and family who have been able to step in and kind of help us get to the stage of growth we're at,” Lele said.
Passionate about the science surrounding allergens, Lele is releasing her first book this September called “The Baby and Biome,” which further delves into the topic.
What do you foresee down the road for Lil Mixins?
We follow the science. We're translators of science into actual, useful, convenient forms. … I'm not going to release products that are just nice to haves to increase sales. If there's really good data, that it's really going to help people, then we'll chase after more stuff. We're also always ears to the ground.
How did you get into Target?
We were actually invited to come and kind of pitch to them. They really liked that our products, we separate out the allergens, we follow the guidelines, and that we took this perspective of only do what the customer needs, be very honest with the customer. They pulled us in and never in my wildest dreams would I have thought … that six months into it [we would be pitching] and a year later, we were on shelves.
Tell us about your forthcoming book, “The Baby and the Biome” and what you tackle in it.
It's being published by Avery, the imprint under Penguin Random House. Sept. 6 is the release date. … What is the rise in allergies? Where did this come from? Why are we all so sick? What happened? From the clinical discovery to the actionability is so long and even from the consensus of scientists and doctors to translating to the average person can be so long, and the goal with the book is to close that gap.
