YLAI Professional Fellows Program, Class of 2016

Andrea Almeida is a food engineer and started her own company, Ethniessence, which emphasizes natural and healthy foods such as snacks and tisanes (fruit and herb infusion). For their products, they use raw material such as lupinus (like an andean bean), sweet potato, and sweet plantain. Ethniessence works with native communities and has created alliances where they maintain a specific price throughout the year and support the communities with agricultural training workshops. They are selling their products at the local market, and are looking forward to exporting them to the U.S., for which they already have FDA permission. In addition, Ethniessence also provides services to other companies that need food research or product development.