Janessa Steenberg is Italian, vegan, and someone who had a protracted occupation in enterprise administration — so it really shouldn’t be a shock that she put these three vital aspects of her life collectively to begin out a vegan Parmesan cheese agency, Panacheeza.
Steenberg has been consuming plant-based since spherical 2009, when “it was terribly powerful to hunt out plant primarily based Italian merchandise,” she tells Inexperienced Points.
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“About 5 years previously, I was so irritated not having Parmesan anymore,” she remembers. “I observed a enterprise for spaghetti with crimson sauce, and they also topped it with Parmesan, and I bolted off of my couch. I discussed, ‘That’s adequate.’ I went straight into my kitchen.”
At that second, she developed her private recipe for vegan grated Parmesan, using merely three elements.
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After years of sharing her vegan Parm with family and buddies, on Would possibly 15, 2023, Steenberg formally launched Panacheeza out of Rochester, N.Y. As of launch, Panacheeza was solely supplied in plastic jars; nonetheless rapidly after, Steenberg moreover rolled out 1-pound baggage of the product that may be utilized to refill the jars, in an effort to reduce packaging waste.
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I attended the Plant Primarily based World Expo at New York Metropolis’s Javits Center on Sept. 8, 2023, the place I acquired to try Panacheeza’s Parm — and I was fully blown away. Immediately curious to check further about this delicious product, I interviewed Janessa Steenberg on the spot for Inexperienced Points Greenovation assortment — check out our Q&A beneath.
This interview has been flippantly edited and condensed for measurement and readability.
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GREEN MATTERS: What’s been the most important downside in setting up Panacheeza?
JANESSA STEENBERG: I believed it might need been arduous. I in no way thought I would work out how one can create a meals enterprise. I’m in enterprise administration. Nonetheless being throughout the plant-based world, it’s a welcoming place to be, on account of all people who’s in it must see us succeed. So it merely retains rising.
The toughest half is maybe getting it into people’s mouths. I have to share it with all individuals. Or, probably the hardest half is making an attempt to keep up up with the demand, on account of the joys throughout the plant-based enterprise is incredible.
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GM: What motivates you to work on this agency?
JS: The proof of thought — having people type it, and their responses. It’s not vegans which is perhaps driving this market, like vegans like myself. It’s flexitarians, it’s individuals who discover themselves already meat eaters, nonetheless they’re making an attempt to be each a meat reducer or to easily infuse further plant-based merchandise into their weight reduction program. Their responses are as soon as I do know that I’ve nailed it. Almost all of our clients are meat eaters.
GM: What’s subsequent for Panacheeza?
JS: We solely have one style for now. We wished to easily get to market.
We’re making artisanal flavors like truffle, cracked black pepper, scorching and spicy. We’ll do some collaborations with some well-known spice companies. We’ll make a diffusion out of it, and a brick.
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GM: What’s your imaginative and prescient for the way in which ahead for the plant-based meals enterprise? What traits would you like to see take over?
JS: Being plant-based for these ultimate 14 years, I have to really try arduous to hunt out my merchandise, I would have to go to specific places. I had a selected little nook throughout the grocery retailer. And solely this yr, inside the previous couple of months, I’ve gone into some large grocery retailers, and seen plant-based merchandise positioned all via the store, instead of in a single nook. So what I need to see is further accessibility to plant-based merchandise. And I really feel we’re gonna get there.
GM: What’s been basically essentially the most rewarding part of setting up the company?
JS: Basically essentially the most rewarding half has been the pure progress of this product. I grew up in an Italian family, cheese and cooking and meat was each half. And I might sneak into the kitchen and eat a spoonful of parmesan, no joke.
I on a regular basis thought I have to work, like I did, in enterprise administration. Creating this product, to satisfy my very personal need, and really making a enterprise out of it and being able to share it with the world feels great.
“Greenovation” is a group from Inexperienced Points that invites founders of companies that are not solely disrupting industries, however moreover making an attempt to change the planet for the upper.
