In today’s modern world, the increasing demand for food including meat and junk has considerably increased due to the ongoing trends of having burgers, pork, and many other types of non-vegan foods.
With the increased risk of various health issues, many people are now adapting to vegan food and focusing on plant-based meats. A company with its human touch, Sgaia Foods was Founded in 2015; the company entered the industry to make vegan food and deliver it to its customers, adding to the emerging wave of veganism.
Sgaia Foods is a small business made from a lot of research and developed by the two Directors of Sgaia Foods, Alberto Casotto and Francesco Capellini. Meals here range from vegan products to vegan-based meals that provide maximum flavor.
All products are human-made from scratch by a small team with a heart and enthusiasm for making innovative approaches and the finest meals while preserving the vegan food culture for future generations.
Every food product at Sgaia Foods is made with minimal use of machines and purely with love and care by human hands used in the production process. They ship their meals every week to the doorstep for their customers to enjoy their meals at home.
Let’s have a tastier dive into Sgaia Food and learn more about it!
Kindly brief us about your company and the ideas and developments that led to its inception.
At Sgaia, we are on a mission to deliver the highest quality natural plant-based meats. The company started in 2014 as a pure necessity for tastier and healthier meat alternatives. As the company grew into a manufacturing solution, new substitutes started appearing. However, we kept our focus on delivering only natural recipes, maintaining quality and an artisanal approach at the core of our decision-making process.
What are its key offerings and how has it created a positive impact on the vegan consumer market?
Our key offerings include our notorious Streaky Rashers and Lorne Sausage, which make an excellent alternative for an English breakfast, and along with our Deli cuts, they work wonders for nutritious sandwiches or as meaty textures and tastes in pasta sauces and countless other dishes.
Our Steaks are having great success in the restaurant space with amazing Chefs giving a whole new life to our products by using them in succulent dishes. During the festive season, however, our Roasts take the spotlight and become the centerpiece of countless Christmas lunches.
Please tell us about yourself, and your professional milestones so far.
The two Directors of Sgaia, Alberto and Francesco come from Northern Italy, a region of the country that has focused, over centuries, on the curation, preservation, and use of various types of meat. The region is surrounded by mountains and woods, cultivating a strong connection to nature and the safeguarding of our ecosystems.
Alberto founded the company back in 2014 and built the brand from the ground up, creating award-winning recipes and a strong customer base. Francesco recently joined, taking charge of the company’s business development and communication, leaving Alberto in charge of product development and operations.
The newly joined Director, Francesco, comes from founding a sustainable organization called Nopla, focused on raising awareness of the plastic crisis, thus bringing expertise on sustainable business development to the table.
The duo is ready for the next challenges and has a shared vision of reshaping the company and bringing it back to its roots by delivering artisanal and natural high-quality meat alternatives.
What are the core values of the company and how are you spearheading it to achieve its mission and vision?
We believe that we need to adapt our culinary cultures for our survival. We need to safeguard these stories by shaping them for the present. The mass needs to change their diets for the survival of our specie. However, we at Sgaia believe that this cannot hinder or neglect aspects of cultures and traditions that shaped us in who we are and what we do. We need to nurture those traditions and pass them on through generations keeping these stories and rituals alive.
Most of the plant-based alternatives are focused on lab-made, chemical-dense, highly processed recipes neglecting nutritional aspects; however, at Sgaia, we make food, not lab experiments. We are here to adapt our traditions, such as the curation of meats for our passionate Antipasti in Italy or for a heart-warming British breakfast or Sunday roast, enabling them to live on fairly and ethically.
How have you joined hands with technology in ensuring the quality production of vegan products?
Our cooking methods have improved along with improvements in technology enabling us to come up with unique systems that enable us to achieve long shelf lives of over 1 year without the use of chemicals and preservatives.
How have you tackled challenges, especially regulatory challenges, and revolutionized the industry with your product(s)?
As stated before, we came up with clever solutions and systems to cook our products, delivering long shelf lives without the use of any chemicals or preservatives.
To guarantee the safety and quality of our products, we went on to gain SALSA accreditation for our factory, giving us International credibility and the ability to produce substantial volumes. This was no easy process, but by complying with it, we improved the production flow in our unit.
As an industrial expert, what advice would you like to give to budding entrepreneurs who wish to enter this field?
Make sure you test your product before you invest and commit too much to it. One of our biggest drivers of growth was the countless food festivals and markets that enabled us to test our recipes without risky investments, giving us a realistic sense of demand and enabling us to build a strong customer base even before we fully launched operations.
This will entail a lot of sacrifices and hard work, but this is the only way to get a real sense of the potential of your product.
What are the future goals of the company? How do you envision upscaling its operations and reach in 2022 and beyond?
Sgaia is going back to its roots focusing on the craft of fine artisanal meat alternatives after it develops bigger-scale manufacturing systems. The brand is focusing on curating experiences for products that go beyond veganism while maintaining and nurturing its strong relationships with local and international distributors.
Sgaia is dropping labels and making these unique experiences inclusive to everyone that is seeking a refined and nutritious meal. From Chef’s Tables to Festivals to unique, engaging digital content on our social media Sgaia is ready to deliver a truly unique artisanal plant-based experience throughout 2023.
Please share any clientele, awards, or publications that highlight your organization’s current position in the market.
Since the start of our journey, we have been given two PETA awards for our Streaky Rashers (bacon alternative) and our vegan poached egg, along with other notorious awards – truly marking our space within the vegan industry. Our products are now supplied by renowned retailers such as Selfridges, Whole Foods Market, and several others.