Eat the Change creates healthy chef-crafted snacks, including its latest offering, OU Kosher-certified Cosmic Carrot Chews. Co-founder Seth Goldman who also co-founded Honest Tea wanted kosher certification to expand the product’s reach.
“What we eat has the single biggest impact on the planet of any of our daily actions,” says Seth Goldman, co-founder and CEO of Eat the Change, a company whose mission is to change and empower consumers to look for healthy foods that are good for the environment. “People can take action every time they eat,” he adds.
Carrot Chews and Fruit Snacks
Eat the Change’s, Cosmic Carrot Chews, very much fits with the company’s mission. Coming up with the Chews took some experimenting. After trying his hand at carrot chips, Co-Founder Chef Spike Mendelsohn came up with the winner: soaking carrots in fruit juice for the appealing texture and taste. The idea grew out of Honest Kids, a line of organic drinks Goldman created as part of Honest Tea bottled beverages, which he founded in 1998 and which was acquired by Coca-Cola in 2011. “I wanted to make a product that did something similar for kids’ snacks,” he explains. The category that most needed something healthy, he found, was fruit snacks, which largely “contained no fruit or anything nutritious, just sugar.”
Kosher certification: “Always a plus”
Cosmic Carrot Chews are available now and are OU Kosher-certified.
“We knew that kosher certification was important, and it’s always a plus,” he says. “I have family members who are kosher, for one thing, and we want to adhere to the highest standards. And of course we want to appeal to as many people as possible.”
The process of certifying Cosmic Carrot Chews was obstacle-free, Goldman reports, because they worked with suppliers and plants that were already certified kosher. Eat the Change’s operations and purchasing people make sure they have a paper trail at every step along the way. “We track everything,” he says. Documentation ensures that OU Kosher always knows where the materials a company uses come from.
Creating a Product that Appeals to All Ages
While Cosmic Carrot Chews are a lunchbox item for younger eaters, he says both his 20-month-old niece and 90-year-old mother scarfed them up when he brought them to a recent family dinner. “They’re good for kids, good for the planet, and tasty – it’s a triple win!” he says.
Eat the Change also makes Mushroom Jerky but it is not yet kosher certified because it’s smoked at plants that also smoke meat. Getting it kosher-certified “is going to take time and will involve moving to different production facilities,” says Goldman. “That product line can’t be kosher certified until all our facilities are certified.”
The Future for Eat the Change
Down the road, Goldman sees Eat the Change — whose motto is “Snack to the Future” — providing snacks for all occasions. All the products are organic; plant- or fungi-based; free of sugar, corn, rice, wheat, potatoes and soy; address food waste by upcycling imperfect produce and extending its shelf life; and incorporate water-efficient crops.
Eat the Change is not Goldman’s only activity. He’s chair of the board of Beyond Meat and a co-Founder of PLNT Burger, a small chain of casual and kosher restaurants that specialize in vegetarian burgers and shakes. He’s been named Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in Greater Washington, Beverage Industry magazine’s Executive of the Year, Partnership for Healthier America’s CEO of the Year and to the Washington DC Business Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Julie Farkas, recently launched ETC Impact, which is donating $1.25 million over three years to nonprofits that educate and inspire consumers to make climate-conscious food choices.
“Everybody eats, so everybody has experience choosing different foods,” Goldman concludes. “I love innovating and empowering people to make changes they believe in.”