Hello!

I am Sheetal Bahirat, a food scientist who is passionate about sustainable and healthy foods!

I am the Founder & CEO of Hidden Gems Beverage Company, the creator behind the world's first avocado seed brew, a food waste researcher and have 10+ years experience in the startup space.

This is a space where I am sharing my learnings from launching a food business!

Sheetal Bahirat

www.sheetalbahirat.com

I have my Masters In culinary arts and science

Course work in:

• Food Composition
  
• Food Microbiology
• Food Product development
• Sensory Analysis
• Functional Foods
• Food Analysis
• Gastronomy
  

Internships and experience:

• James Beard Foundation research assistant to build a national food waste reduction cirriculum
  
• Claneil foundation grant research assistant on food waste product development
• Won 3rd place in the Hershey's product development challenge
• CFHM Scholarship (Drexel University) , IFT Scholarship
• Jamie and Lisa McGuire award for sustainability
  

I am the founder and CEO of Hidden Gems Beverage Company

Avocado seed brew

Gut healthy PrEbiotics + Antioxidants

No sugar

No bubbles

No pungent flavor

No preservatives

I love Product Development and R&D

Designed a brand and recipe that won the best sustainable product of the year in 2022. I have developed over 100+ recipes that have made it to the market.

Skills

• Deep understanding of product development
• R&D
• Innovation design & process design for CPG.
• Basic knowledge of FDA GRAS, achieved self affirmed GRAS status for avocado seed brew.
  

I've launched 5 brands in my career

Launched a product that sold $60k in the first 8 months since the launch and covered in over 100 publications. Have launched 4 other product lines (3 beverage and one cereal line).

Skills

• Market research,
• Brand positioning
• Customer feedback
• Leading the sales team
• Testing different sales channels
• Project management
  

I understand Fundraising, Financials & business

Fundraised over $1M

for Hidden Gems from investors, VCs, grants and in kind services

Skills

• Financial planning and projections
• Fundraising
• Grant writing
• Understanding and writing business plans
• Pricing
• COGS
• Balance with sustainable mission
  

I handle the Operations for Reveal

Handled all operations from bench top to scale up of an upcycled certified product and ingredient.

Skills

• Supply chain building
• Procurement and sourcing
• Production run planning
• Copacker relationships
• COGS analysis and improvement
• 3PL facilities management
• Inventory management
• Certifications like upcycled certified
  

conceptualization, brand building and recipe development

Created a propietary process to extract the antioxidants from the avocado seed and put it into a beverage format.

Completed the market research along with taste testings with customers to discover the best positioning on the market and the kind of recipe that would support it.

Designed flavors and started to taste test the product. Collected data from taste testing different formulations, edited the recipe and tested different methods to improve scalability

Launched the first ever Avocado Seed Brew to the market and received a great response from the market. We closed the first 8 months with $60k in sales.

Lead Scale up process from

bench top to copacking

Formulated bech-top formulas and recipes on a small scale. Designed and completed sensory analysis and incorporated the feedback to create final recipes.

Scaled up from small 5-10 gal batch sizes to 30 gal. Found and worked with a piloting facility to test run the product. made minor adjustments to the recipe.

Scaled up from 30 gal to 90 gal batches. Planned and organized entire production run, no adjustments to the formula were needed.

Found and worked with copackers to fully scale up the process from avocado seed to finished product. Organized, created a checklist for QC and ensured good quality product.

Need help to launch your own food/ beverage brand?

Connect with me