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Kokada, a Wharton startup that produces wholesome and natural coconut spreads, gained the 2022 Good Housekeeping Healthy Snack Awards’ “Finest Coconut Unfold” class.
Co-founded by Wharton MBA college students Breanna Atkinson and Jared Golestani in 2020, Kokada is a startup that produces sugar-free, gluten-free, and nut-free coconut spreads that serve in its place snack choice for these on the lookout for wholesome but candy snacks.
Kokada was chosen amongst meals startups and nationwide manufacturers, corresponding to Wonderful Pistachios, Patagonia Provisions and Sun-Maid, that required a screening course of led by a panel of nutritionists, skilled dietitians, and practically 2,000 taste-testers.
Good Housekeeping is a way of life journal publication courting again to 1885 that goals to offer readers with science and evidence-based product analysis, opinions, and options for family wants. The Good Housekeeping Wholesome Snack Awards is an annual accolade given to manufacturers which have excelled of their respective food-type classes out of lots of of entries.
“It feels unreal once we discovered we gained,” Atkinson advised The Every day Pennsylvanian. “We didn’t rent a recipe developer to make our recipes, so it’s loopy to be advised that our recipe, our product, and branding we have now finished is now featured in one of many greatest magazines within the nation.”
The inspiration for Kokada first got here to Atkinson in Could 2020 when she was looking for a fast and wholesome snack various she might eat whereas juggling her profession in administration consulting and as an expert athlete on the Jamaican Girls’s Nationwide Volleyball workforce.
“I used to be touring always for each consulting and volleyball, too, so I by no means actually had the time to cook dinner or eat past snacks,” Atkinson mentioned. “I began on the lookout for refined sugar-free snack choices which each tasted good and had been wholesome for me. Finally, it led me to create Kokada.”
Atkinson and Golestani began promoting Kokada in farmers markets in North Carolina the place they lived again in October 2020. In January 2021, Kokada started promoting their authentic coconut unfold in retail shops in North Carolina, ultimately touchdown them in Target’s Forward Founders Accelerator program in Could of the identical 12 months.
Launching a meals startup through the pandemic introduced its personal challenges as Atkinson and Golestani grew their enterprise whereas additionally navigating supply-chain breakdowns, supply delays, and emotional and monetary calls for. Nevertheless, their enterprise started to take off after winning the NOSH Pitch Slam competition final December and has presently been featured on distinguished information websites like Good Morning America.
Kokada has three flavors accessible for buy on its website and Amazon: authentic, brownie, and cinnamon toast, with two new flavors set to launch in November.
“It’s addictively scrumptious,” Wharton MBA pupil Haakon Brekke advised the DP. “With Kokada, you don’t must sacrifice the style for it to be wholesome.”
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