An interview with Emilio Sepulveda and Lynette Kucsma from Natural Machines, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startups.

It’s time to put a face to the name…

We asked our FoodTech 500 top-runners to give us a bit of insight into how they started out as a company and their thoughts on the role of technology in Food innovation. Meet CEO Emilio Sepulveda and CMO Lynette Kucsmafrom from Natural Machines, with their first released product, the Foodini: a 3D food printing kitchen appliance that enables you to personalize food, eat healthier, improve kitchen efficiency and lower food waste. Let’s see what they had to say.

So tell us a little bit more about you! Where did the idea for your FoodTech company come from?

Emilio and Lynette: It all started with a conversation with a friend, as the idea for many other companies start. This friend owned a vegan bakery producing sweet goods and was expanding the business outside of the country of origin. But there was a problem in the costs of doing so: 80% of product costs were tied to manufacturing and distribution, while raw ingredients and labor accounted for only 20%. Rather than manufacturing in a central location and shipping out the final product, the idea surfaced that ideally a mini-manufacturing kitchen appliance could exist in many individual locations, thus slashing the costs of central manufacturing and distribution, while minimizing the complexity of making the goods.

A 3D printer is a mini-manufacturing device. The premise of all 3D printers is the user becomes the manufacturer, maker, creator. We took it a step further and designed a 3D food printer made exclusively to work with food, constructed of food-grade, food-safe materials. Foodini was born under the Natural Machines company name.

That kicked off the idea. We both have strong passions for healthy eating. That meant Natural Machines couldn’t focus only on bakery sweet goods. And both of us believe in the macro-trends towards healthy food: people want to know what they are eating, what exactly is in their foods, and where those foods are coming from.

Food tech – including Foodini – needs to accommodate what your vision of a healthy diet is because everyone’s personal vision can be different; there is no one food regime that is right for every person. That’s one reason we do NOT force people to buy pre-filled food capsules to use Foodini. You control the foods used with Foodini. Want to use fresh foods? We welcome it: Foodini ships with empty stainless steel food capsules that you can fill with your own fresh ingredients.

3D food printing really isn’t that crazy of an idea after all. Because if you eat anything from a food manufacturer – like packaged food you buy in a supermarket – then you practically are already eating 3D printed food: a food manufacturer takes food, pushes it through machines, shapes it, forms it… we’ve taken that same concept and shrunk the large food manufacturing facility down to a stylish appliance for your kitchen counter. But the big difference is we allow you to use your own fresh ingredients to print.

People are using Foodini across the world – individuals and companies from over 90 countries have reached out to us. Customers from many different industries are now using Foodini: restaurants, food service providers, food manufacturers, education, research, nutrition and health companies.

Our goal is to produce a full range of innovative kitchen solutions improving the quality and enjoyment of food, making it easier to be in full control of all your foods and have a positive environmental impact by lessening food loss/waste. 

How is tech central to your business?

Emilio and Lynette: It’s very central… we make a 3D food printer that is also an IoT (Internet of Things) connected kitchen appliance.

Why do you think it’s important to see the food industry embrace tech?

Emilio and Lynette: Tech can help the food industry move further towards long-term food sustainability – an important issue in the world today. Food tech – including Foodini – needs to accommodate what your vision of a healthy diet is, because everyone’s personal vision can be different; there is no one food regime that is right for every person.

 

Want to know more? See Natural Machines’ full profile here.

Congratulations again to Natural Machines for ranking 2nd in the category “Food Processing” of the Foodtech 500 list!

To find out who else made it into the FoodTech 500; the top Food Tech companies in the world, click here.

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