Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/986636
AIDAN ALTMAN Age: 24 Years in specialty food: 2.5 Favorite food: Nice, flaky spanakopita—vegan, of course Least favorite food: Black licorice Last thing I ate and loved: Field Roast burger with Chao cheese If I weren't in the food business I'd be: In the music industry. For fun, I make beats and tracks for rappers and singers. One piece of advice I'd give to a new food business: When you're developing your formula, make sure you have ingredients that can scale with your company. ANDREW MCCLURE Age: 25 Years in specialty food: 1 Favorite food: Hummus Least favorite food: Salmon is overrated. Last thing I ate and loved: Veggie samosas at a Burmese restaurant in Berkeley If I weren't in the food business I'd be: In the movie business. I keep a journal and think I'd do a decent job of acting and writing. One piece of advice I'd give to a new food business: Run the numbers. If you can't personally do it, get someone who can before giving away your life savings like Aidan and I have done. producer profile $40,000 of their own money into the business. They looked for a co- packer and supply chains to make production affordable. For addi- tional coverage, they met with investors and launched a Kickstarter campaign, quickly raising more than $18,000 of a $15,500 goal. In fall 2017, Altman and McClure took another leap, moving to Bushwick, Brooklyn, and once again becoming roommates. They had decided New York made the most sense since the city offered them access to more investors, advisers, lawyers, and inf luential chefs who could help generate buzz. So far, their girlfriends have not joined them, leading to a lot of commuting. They chose the name Fora Foods for their company since 'fora' is the plural of 'forum,' McClure explained. "Right now, in 2018, unlike any other time in history, there is this open forum taking place about plant-based foods. We don't see ourselves as one conversation, but a wide swath of different conversations. Altman and McClure predict Faba Butter will have mass appeal given the broader trend of so-called f lexitarians shifting to less meaty diets and shunning dairy. What could prove risky is calling Faba Butter "butter" since the FDA defines it as containing not less than 80 percent milk fat. Altman and McClure say they see it as a gray area. For the dairy industry, it's more black and white, with language from the Dairy Pride Act, which bars products made from nuts, seeds, plants, and algae from being marketed with terms like milk, yogurt, or cheese, included in the omnibus spending bill that passed in the spring. Though it remains to be seen if the language is enforceable or will have a significant impact on plant-based products. Going up against "Big Butter" doesn't seem to faze them, how- ever. After Faba Butter's launch, the partners plan to add different f lavored spreads and other non-dairy disruptors in a year or so. "The butter is just the beginning," Altman says. Julie Besonen writes for The New York Times and is a restaurant columnist for nycgo.com. "We genuinely feel our product tastes and functions just like butter, and we want the consumer to think of it that way, with no behavioral shift at all. We don't want to just reach a handful of vegans." 110 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com