Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the food industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups developing food as medicine solutions.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top Startups developing Food as Medicine out of 245
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2.093.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 245 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 food tech startups that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 240 food as medicine solutions, get in touch.
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Kaffe Bueno provides Active Ingredients
Illnesses such as high cholesterol, blood pressure (BP), and cardiovascular diseases, as well as diabetes, are preventable and often curable by incorporating certain foods into the routine diet. For example, coffee contains antioxidants and bioactive components including caffeic acid, nicotinic acid, chlorogenic acids, trigonelline, diterpenes, and caffeine. These components offer considerable health benefits. That is why startups upcycle post-consumer coffee waste into active and functional ingredients.
Kaffe Beuno is a Danish startup that uses green chemistry and biotechnology to create active and functional ingredients for foods and nutraceuticals. The startup fractionates coffee byproducts to upcycle them into active ingredients. The startup’s KAFFOIL is a vegan-based versatile extract that provides a rich coffee flavor to food and beverage products along with health-enhancing compounds. Kafflour is another product that the startup upcycles from spent coffee grounds. It is a gluten-free flour that is low in fat and rich in proteins. Kafflour also contains insoluble dietary fibers and potassium.
Food Period offers Functional Food Products
Often, doctors prescribe taking birth control pills or synthetic hormones to reinstate the hormonal balance. However, such treatments have side effects on the patient’s body. Hence, naturopaths and nutritionists recommend a daily intake of specific seeds and food to restore balance. Seed syncing is a natural remedy that involves consuming a combination of four seeds. Each of these seeds contains a micronutrient or chemical compound that supports the body’s natural ability to modulate estrogen and progesterone. Balancing these hormones also helps alleviate numerous hormonal disorders.
Food Period is a US-based startup that designs functional food products. It makes two varieties of Moon Milk, its latte blend. One is made of moringa and lucuma and the other uses maca and cacao. Further, the startup offers two types of Moon Bites, an energy cookie that caters to the follicular phase and the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The startup makes it simple to follow nutrition-based practices to improve and maintain overall hormonal balance.
Lantmännen Functional Foods develops Functional Ingredients
Consuming a diet rich in whole and nutritious foods potentially enhances the effectiveness of treatments for certain health conditions. The food as medicine movement has its roots in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic. The movement advocates that eating right has the power to prevent certain diseases. To this end, startups also produce functional food that acts as preventive medicine and eases the healing process.
Lantmännen Functional Foods is a Swedish startup that provides consumers with functional foods. The startup develops and markets foods that maintain a healthy heart, gut, and blood sugar. This includes specially processed cereals (SPC), such as flakes, and Salovum foods with antisecretory effects for dietary treatment of diarrhea. Further, the startup develops oat-based functional ingredients, useful for manufacturers of foods, beverages, food supplements, and cosmetics.
Muniq facilitates Science-based Nutrition
The gut’s tremendous complexity, as well as its role in our overall health, is a growing area of research. Gut health is linked to the immune system, mood, mental health, endocrine disorders, and diseases like cancer. Further, startups are starting to fine-tune nutritional products by utilizing advances in gut microbiomics. Such food directly impacts the functioning of the immune system and helps in combating diseases.
Muniq is a US-based startup that provides science-based nutritional products that balance the gut microbiome to improve quality of life. The startup offers a range of drinks to help consumers regain control of their health. First, they ask consumers to first take a quiz to see which of their drinks will benefit the consumer. Depending on the result, Muniq creates shakes that contain resistant starch, a powerful gut-healing prebiotic fiber. Their solution improves blood sugar levels, helps manage weight loss, and improves digestion. Further, the startup uses use natural and sustainably sourced ingredients to make their beverages.
Voll Sante develops Nutraceuticals
A large number of people globally suffer from diet-related health conditions. At the same time, research shows that including specific foods in a patient’s diet accelerates their recovery. However, medicinal foods generally lack options, resulting in bland flavors and inconsistent texture. Startups are developing functional snacks, beverages, and nutraceuticals to encourage people to eat healthy on a daily basis.
Voll Sante is an Indian startup that develops immunity support and child nutrition food as well as supplements for women’s health and bone care. The startup’s Voll Pro Bar is rich in protein and contains dietary fibers to boost digestion. The startup also offers flavored water infused with protein and fiber. Some of their other products include Hormony, a supplement for the overall management of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and Vollcee Z, an immunity support nutraceutical.
Discover more Food Tech Startups
Food startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on infusing the active and beneficial ingredients into food, as well as develop nutraceuticals and functional food, to prevent disease and maintain a healthy human body. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing the food industry, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more food technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download our free FoodTech Innovation Report to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
