Dispatches from Food Vision 2016

GreenOnyx on home-brewed mission to serve ‘missing nutrition’

This content item was originally published on www.nutraingredients.com, a William Reed online publication.

21-Mar-2016 - Last updated on 28-Sep-2021 at 10:06 GMT

Related tags Nutrition Us

How do you ensure nutrients are fresh? How about growing them in a ‘superfood machine’ in your kitchen? US start-up GreenOnyx has the technology, an Asian micro-vegetable called khai-nam and is set for launch on both sides of the Atlantic.

At Food Vision in Cannes recently, founder and CEO Benny Shoham explained his ‘mission’ of bringing ‘missing nutrition’ into everyday kitchens in cities all over the world.

“GreenOnyx is all about bringing back missing nutrition from our modern food in a way that we can integrate a wholesome, fresh nutritious source into the food we like which is totally missing right now in the market,” he said.

“That’s really our mission and if we are successful this becomes a commodity – easily accessible, available and affordable to everyone. That’s the kind of public segment we want to serve eventually.”

The CEO said the firm had “customers and partners” in place in the US and was scrutunising revised novel foods laws in the European Union for the 1mm micro-veg and “Might consider coming into Europe in parallel.”

Home-brewed micro vegetables

Shoham outlined that the GreenOnyx ‘home-brew’ system worked a little like a cable TV licensing system.

“You pay a fixed amount on a monthly basis and from that point you don’t have to worry about anything – we take care of the servicing of the system and consumables,” he said.

“All you get is once a month through the mail a simple capsule that includes a bioseed and fertiliser. Take the old one out, put the new one in and that’s about what you have to do.

“The rest is just using the system as you need. It can supply between a pound and two pounds per day based on the model you have and the family size you are trying to feed. That’s designed to supply the essential nutrition that you need on a daily basis.

“The source is called khai-nam – a family of aquatic vegetables, tiny vegetables that grow very fast in nature and they are very rich in plant protein, in fibres, all the key minerals like magnesium, iron, zinc, potassium; very rich in vitamins A, K and E. And on top of that you have a very interesting layer of antioxidants that are very bioactive.”

Shoham said the system can be scaled from domestic use to commercial operations like restaurants and catering outfits.

Watch a GreenOnyx presentation of its offering here: