Evonne Morrison, founder of the brand Good Nude Food, beat hundreds of other innovations to be named winner of the ‘Pitch! Live’ competition at the International Food and Beverage Event (IFE) in London last month when the story and science behind her ‘superkrauts’ won over judges.
Speaking to Nutraingredients about how the brand came about, the Scottish entrepreneur explains how the stresses and strains of corporate work became both her illness and her inspiration.
“I worked in the corporate sector for over a decade and whilst working there I started suffering with various health issues including problems with my skin,” she explains.
“It was a stressful work environment and I wasn’t looking after myself as well as I should have been. I was prescribed medication and creams but the underlying problem kept persisting so the issues just kept coming back.”
Deciding to try and discover the route cause of the problems, Morrison went to a nutritionist who told her she should try to improve her gut health by trying to include a variety of prebiotic foods into her diet, such as sauerkraut.
Struggling to find a sauerkraut she enjoyed and which also included the superfoods she wanted to try, she began making her own.
“I started looking for a super charged sauerkraut with a variety of prebiotic vegetables and superfoods that I wanted to eat.
“I wanted there to be fresh root turmeric in one of the flavours and spirulina in another as these are two superfoods that I was trying to incorporate into my everyday meals.
“There is increasing research about gut health and the impact of fermented products on our overall wellbeing. Superkraut is a delicious, healthy and a convenient accompaniement to any meal.”
After a few months of following a gut healthy diet, Morrison says her skin had cleared and she noticed a huge improvement in her mood and energy levels.
The science
In a first for a sauerkraut company, Morrison is about to begin working in collaboration with a Scottish University to undertake a next generation DNA sequencing study in which microbiologists will extract the DNA from each of the three variants in her range.
The study, due to commence this month, aims to discover the number of different species of bacteria that exist in of the products and the bacterial count of each.
Further indulging her scientific interest, Morrison also plans to do vitamin testing on the products as she knows sauerkraut generally is high in vitamin C and hopes the additions of some of her ingredients such as kale and spinach will lead to a high counts of vitamin K and B.
She then plans to work with food technologists with the aim to increase these counts without affecting the flavours.
What next?
Morrison left her corporate job behind her two years ago with the plan to pursue her new love of ‘fermented foods.
However, the real motivation to launch her Superkraut products came in the form of her twins, born in April last year – just seven days after her business launched. She says, “it has been a challenging but very fulfilling year, watching my business and two babies grow.”
The Good Nude Food product line consists of three live “Superkrauts”: fermented raw sauerkraut with additional superfood ingredients. Flavours include Turmeric and Ginger, Supergreens With Spirulina, and the spicy Red Hot Firekraut.
The range is currently on sale in over 40 stores across Scotland but the company plans to extend throughout the UK by summer 2019 and eventually would like to export.