Innovation

Genius Foods is one of a new crop of companies that aim to creatively tackle the problem of food waste. They use about a half-ton of mango residues a week from fruit processors, who usually have to pay someone to cart the stuff way and make the product named Manguifer. They supply bakeries with a powder made from mango residues to make Conchas, a typical Mexican pastry, with more fiber and less fat at a lower price.

Inspiration

When one of the founders was 15 years old, he was diagnosed with pre-diabetes. This created a big impact in his life because he had to make major lifestyle changes or continue down the road to diabetes. Many products made today are too rich in salt, sugar and saturated fats. The founders were inspired to design a product to improve what people already consume without adding a premium for the nutritious and sustainable improvement.

Overall impact

Genius Foods aims to feed 10 billion people by 2050 in a healthy, affordable and sustainable way. To do this, the company is identifying byproducts and residues with a lot of nutrition and potential functionality.

Business benefit

The company is creating new opportunities for farmers by giving them incentives to maximum their crop capacity. These savings are calculated between 5% to 12% in costs and improvements in the quality of their products.

Baking companies also benefit by using Genius Foods' products because it makes their product less expensive, which increases profitability.

Social and environmental benefit

Genius Foods benefits the environment because they use alternate crops with little use and the waste from producing plants and transforming them into functional natural ingredients.

Interview

Flavio Siller, Chief Operations Officer