How FoodNerd Aims to Revolutionize Shelf-Stable Food
Two years of engineering. Two-and-a-half years of product trial and error. And 250 prototypes shaped from raw fruits, vegetables and seeds. All to create the technology behind the humble-looking FoodNerd “puff,” a colorful, heart-shaped snack. But that result? It might be nothing short of a nutritional breakthrough, one as significant as fire but, well, with none of the heat.
It’s a technology that not only “rewrites food manufacturing,” in the words of Sharon Rose Cryan, founder and CEO of FoodNerd, but one that moves in the direction of increasing everyone’s access to healthy foods. It’s a goal Cryan calls “nutritional equality.” Sound ambitious? It is. But when the Amherst-based, women-led food technology company stated their intention to make products in Buffalo that can then feed the world, you can bet investors and venture capitalists took notice.
In fact, that’s the line Cryan used to close her winning pitch to judges at the “Shark Tank”–style competition hosted by business accelerator 43North: “Imagine a world where every single child has all of the nutrition that their growing bodies need, and those products were made right here.”
Cryan's plan for building that distant dream relies on a patent-pending cold-process manufacturing technology that protects the nutritional value of raw foods often diminished by traditional manufacturing.
The Technology of Food
It is possible that food technology and culinary innovation made us who we are. Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham’s cooking hypothesis, laid out in books like Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, suggests that harnessing fire to cook food played a significant role in human evolution, making food easier to chew and digest, which increased energy and supported brain growth.
FoodNerd’s proprietary nutrient-locking cold processing might well be a next step in the evolution of nutrient bioavailability—the amount of nutrients that can be absorbed into the bloodstream and used by the body.
By avoiding heat, their process maintains the nutrient density of superfoods such as blueberries, beets, avocados and sprouted seeds and preserves sensitive phytonutrients—plant-protecting compounds associated with improving immune function, reducing inflammation, and other benefits. According to Cryan, FoodNerd is an industry pioneer in testing and quantifying these phytonutrients.
FoodNerd tests rigorously, using both internal testing and third-party certifications. They’re the only company to carry both Clean Label Project’s Purity Award and First 1,000 Days Promise Certification across their entire portfolio, which test for heavy metals, toxins, pesticides, and other contaminants. Their cold processing nearly eliminates the formation of external Advanced Glycation End-Products (AGEs), compounds created when sugars and proteins react under high heat.
Holly Batt, director of applied nutrition and food quality at FoodNerd, explained why reducing AGEs matters: “Over time they build up in our body and they’re what may drive chronic disease. They’re related to everything from diabetes to neurologic disorders.”
Batt’s team tests everything—FoodNerd's raw ingredients and final products and those of their competitors. Their findings inform both consumers and brands interested in improving their supply chains.
Mom on a Mission
Cryan’s inspiration came from the confusion she felt as a child witnessing her mother’s struggle with multiple sclerosis. The experience drove her passion for a preventive lifestyle through nutrition. But what began as a personal mission quickly expanded as she realized others felt the same way: “It’s not just me,” she said. “Every single person struggles with being healthy. Every single wants the best for their children.”
But today’s FoodNerd didn’t happen overnight, nor was it Cryan’s original path. She was a practicing attorney on Long Island when enthusiastic comments from colleagues about her food prep sparked her entry into entrepreneurship. The FoodNerd name has been floating around since 2017, when Cyran began experimenting with different services and products, from plant-based meal prep to overnight oats. Within a couple of years, Cryan turned to developing nutritious shelf-stable snacks, but she encountered several barriers to entry.
Early on, Cryan realized engineering would be a significant challenge. “To achieve what we wanted to achieve was difficult because we’re used to manufacturing food a certain way,” she recalled. In short, FoodNerd had to flip everything known about shelf-stable food manufacturing on its head. In addition, fundraising remains a constant need due to the ambitious mission and vision—FoodNerd wasn’t in the black for most of its existence.
“Investors had to truly believe in the mission wholeheartedly,” Cryan said.
And of course, they had to believe in the technology.
To tackle these challenges, Cryan assembled a team combining scientific expertise with industry experience. CFO Ilser Adiguzel brought over two decades of consumer-packaged goods (CPG) experience from a multinational corporation, complementing FoodNerd’s scientific advisory board. Together, they’re revolutionizing how shelf-stable foods are made.
By avoiding high-heat processing and carefully managing their ingredients, supply chain and manufacturing through end-to-end control, FoodNerd delivers unparalleled nutritional outcomes. The result is a kid-friendly puff made from 100 percent organic raw fruit, vegetables, and their foundational sprouted seed blend (pumpkin, chia, flax and broccoli). One bag of Mega Puffs provides 100 percent of a toddler’s daily recommended intake of fruits and vegetables—and that’s just the beginning.
“People really understand the ingredients at this point,” Batt said. “But the actual processing method is our next big education hurdle, and why this is so important.” The company is working to lower that hurdle.
Go North, Founders
Standing on stage at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in downtown Buffalo, Sharon Cryan laid out her vision before 3,000 mostly local spectators. “The global opportunity for our products is massive,” she told the crowd. “With a total addressable market of over $250 billion, we can hit our goal of $100 million in annual revenue by 2030.” It’s a deep vertical market spanning baby food, formula, supplements, cereals and snacks with additional targets including over-the-counter drugs and food for pets and adults. Then came her winning close about imagining a better future.
This was October 2024 and the stage was 43North’s tenth annual pitch competition. Buffalo-based 43North invests $5 million annually in high-growth companies in sectors such as health, clean tech, consumer products and AI. This year, the five winners emerged from 940 global applicants (including 70 from Western New York) and received $1 million each. Winning companies are required to relocate to Buffalo for at least a year. FoodNerd is already here.
From an economic development standpoint, there’s something about a Buffalo food technology company that really fits. Drive a few miles outside Buffalo and the region’s agricultural identity becomes visible, while the city itself maintains its manufacturing heritage alongside a growing tech sector.
“I think we’ve been attracted to [food tech] because of the assets that surround us,” said Colleen Heidinger, president of 43North. “When we’re doing our diligence, we’re asking companies, ‘Why Buffalo, and how is your business going to organically fit into our region?’”
Heidinger, who’s been with 43North almost since its inception in 2014, leads a team that provides resources to help founders scale their businesses and offers programming designed to make them fall in love with Buffalo during the year-long program. When asked why they invest in companies already here, her answer is simple: to keep them. “The number of local applicants has grown significantly since our first year as a result of the blossoming ecosystem in Western New York,” she explained. “A company’s roots in Buffalo go that much deeper upon winning our award.”
She pointed out that founders like FoodNerd and Top Seedz (a previous winner and woman-owned business who mentored FoodNerd during finals week) have unique support and mentorship from multinational food companies like Rich Products and other manufacturers in ways they wouldn’t get as easily in another city.
With distribution plans spanning direct-to-consumer to global retail, FoodNerd shows potential for unicorn status—a $1 billion valuation. Their technology addresses a “universal struggle” among consumers by replacing the empty calories encountered in most convenience foods with shelf-stable products that maintain the nutrient density of raw produce and sprouted seeds. And now FoodNerd seems primed for wide distribution. 43North has brought invaluable exposure and enabled scalability right at home. “To have Buffalo wrap their arms around us is really exciting,” Cryan said.
1,000 Days and Beyond
With Mega Puffs, FoodNerd has found its niche as a food technology company. Their focus: mother and child, specifically the first 1,000 days of a child’s development from conception to the second birthday.
Speaking to its homegrown inspiration, FoodNerd serves a pressing need in their own backyard, helping fill Buffalo’s food deserts—areas lacking access to fresh foods—and countering a city known for high chronic disease rates.
But Batt emphasized that these issues affect everyone. “You’ll find this across socioeconomic and socio-demographic environments. You’re seeing negative health effects early in life across the board associated with the ultra-processed foods being eaten by everyone.”
And let’s face it: Kids can be selective eaters. Few parents could expect success putting raw fruits, vegetables and seeds in front of their toddlers. It takes time to develop a child’s palate, and there are choking hazards to consider. FoodNerd addresses it all by cold processing a familiar food format that maintains delicate flavor profiles while delivering macronutrients and protecting phytonutrients.
Their Bell Pepper Avocado Mega Puffs, for example, combine their foundational sprouted seed blend with organic bell pepper and avocado, nutritional yeast and Himalayan sea salt—training toddlers on umami, bitter and salty elements.
FoodNerd presents this as a Venn diagram of snacks and raw foods, offering in Cryan’s words “the convenience parents want with the complete nutrition their children’s growing bodies need.”
But they’re aiming higher: “The most nutrient-dense solutions for the first 1,000 days of life.” Their current Mega Puffs cover stage 4 (12–36 months), with prenatal snacks for pregnant mothers and other products in development to complete the nutritional chain from conception forward.
“As a female-led team of mostly mothers,” Cryan said, “[our] ultimate goal is nutritional equality—every child deserves access to healthy food at the right time, made the right way.”
By all appearances, FoodNerd is pioneering a new path. Just as fire transformed human nutrition in our species’ earliest days, this cold revolution from Buffalo might reshape nutrition in the future.
