These Female-Run Food Companies Are Changing What We Eat

Women are subtly shaping the landscape of American entrepreneurship, especially in the food industry. You may not even realize how many women-owned food brands are in your pantry as we speak. And these new, innovative brands are doing more than satisfying hunger; they also tell stories, preserve heritage, and transform communities across the world.

While women have long been underrepresented in packaged foods and retail, many have turned their adversity, backgrounds, and agricultural knowledge into thriving culinary enterprises. No matter the motivations behind their creations, one thing is certain: you're going to want to try what they're creating as soon as you're done reading this.

24/7 Tempo brings you some of the best women-owned and operated food businesses you should be eating now, using research from Women Owned, Oprah Daily, and Taste of Home, as well as information from company websites. We'll highlight a range of product categories and founders, offering a taste of how women are reshaping American grocery shelves, one bite at a time.

• Owner(s): Maya Kaimal
• Main product(s): Indian sauces, condiments, and meals

Inspired by the owner and namesake's South Indian roots, this gourmet food company offers convenient simmer sauces, dals, channas, and condiments made from time-honored family recipes.

• Owner(s): Sadie Kendall
• Main product(s): Crème fraîche

Since 1981, this family-owned company has been making high quality crème fraîche that is free of additives or stabilizers, and is heat and acid stable - meaning it will not break when boiled or blended into sauces.

• Owner(s): Jing Gao
• Main product(s): Sichuan sauces

With a line of Sichuan pantry staples inspired by the flavors of the proprietor's hometown, Chengdu, Fly by Jing is perhaps most famous for its Sichuan chili crisp, a spicy condiment that goes well on nearly anything savory.

• Owner(s): Jeni Britton Bauer
• Main product(s): Ice cream

What started as an ice cream stall at a Columbus, Ohio, food hall and market has become an artisan scoop shop that spans 14 states. Jeni's pints are available at fine grocery stores nationwide, and feature flavors like powdered jelly donut and brown butter almond brittle.

• Owner(s): KaiYen Mai
• Main product(s): Beef, pork, chicken, and turkey jerky

Fusion's founder KaiYen Mai emerged from her family's long-running jerky business to market her own updated version that combines globally-inspired seasonings with quality meat and poultry to create a tender snack that is bursting with flavor.

• Owner(s): Kristen Preau
• Main product(s): Jambalaya, gumbo, and other New Orleans specialties

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Kristin Preau traveled cross-country peddling jambalaya and raised over $100,000 for her hometown's recovery. Now, her family's recipes are used in Jambalaya Girl's variety of rice blends, seasonings, and gumbo base.

• Owner(s): Christina Tosi
• Main product(s): Desserts and baked goods

Originally a boutique bakery under the umbrella of David Chang's Momofuku restaurants, Milk Bar is now a chain of dessert restaurants headed by chef and sugar addict Christina Tosi. A line of Milk Bar's cookies and ice creams are available at supermarkets nationwide.

• Owner(s): Jill Giacomini Basch, Lynn Giacomini Stay, and Diana Giacomini Hagan
• Main product(s): Artisanal cheese

Three sisters transformed their family dairy farm into the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, producing California's only classic-style blue cheese, as well as semi-hard table cheeses, cheddar, aged gouda, and soft-ripened cheeses.

• Owner(s): Amy, Shelby, and Jackie Zitelman
• Main product(s): Tahini and tahini products

Lamenting the absence of high quality tahini on U.S. shelves, the three Zitelman sisters created Soom (Hebrew for sesame seed), which offers tahini that rivals the brands found in Israel, as well as date syrups and sesame-based snacks.

• Owner(s): Kate McAleer
• Main product(s): Chocolate bars, drinking chocolate, baking chocolate

Maine's first bean-to-bar chocolate company sources cacao directly from farmers in Central America and the Caribbean, to create an array of chocolates, bonbons, and confections that can be shipped nationwide.

• Owner(s): Claire Smith
• Main product(s): Ancient grain granola

When her family's seventh-generation Michigan grain farm began growing the ancient grain teff, a staple of Ethiopian cuisine, Claire Smith tried adding the grain to her granola - and Teffola was born. The nutty multi-grain granola is available in retail stores in the Midwest.

• Owner(s): Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh
• Main product(s): Nut butters

Founded by two college roommates, this company sources U.S. grown peanuts and almonds for their line of creamy nut butters and sweet nutty spreads.

• Owner(s): Katy Flannery and Gwen Burlingame
• Main product(s): Lactose-free ice cream

From humble roots in Boston farmers markets to supermarkets nationwide, this lactose-free ice cream company has succeeded in providing a gourmet pint that is just as rich, creamy, and decadent as lactose-full ice cream.

• Owner(s): Loren Brill
• Main product(s): Gluten-free cookies and brownies

After kicking cancer in her 20s, Loren Brill set out to create a company that offers plant-based, all-natural treats. Sweet Loren's convenient cookie dough is gluten-free, dairy-free, and non-GMO.

• Owner(s): Cara Nicoletti
• Main product(s): Meat-and-vegetable sausages

A fourth-generation butcher from Boston, Cara Nicoletti has made it her mission to encourage people to eat more sustainably by packing as many vegetables as possible into Seemore's humanely raised chicken and pork sausages.

• Owner(s): Katrina Markoff
• Main product(s): Chocolate bars and other chocolate products

From the founder of Chicago's Vosges Haut-Chocolat, Wild Ophelia is a Fair Trade chocolate company with a mission of empowering young women entrepreneurs through its accelerator grant program.

• Owner(s): Yasmeen, Fatima, Sheilla, and Nasreen Sajady
• Main product(s): Afghan-style chutneys

After growing up devouring their mother's 'magic green sauce' on every dish, these three sisters teamed up with their mom to bring their family's cilantro ginger chutney, in three variations, to the masses.

• Owner(s): Ayesha Abuelhiga
• Main product(s): Biscuits and scones

Founded by a first-generation American whose parents owned a small comfort food carry-out restaurant, Mason Dixie sells preservative-free frozen scones and biscuits that can be heated and served hot for that home-baked taste.

• Owner(s): Jennifer Schettewi and Jan Allen
• Main product(s): Chocolate bars and other chocolate products

Based in Hawaii, this chocolate company makes premium bars with Hawaiian-inspired flavors like coffee and sugarcane, pineapple and toasted coconut, and dragonfruit with black lava sea salt.

• Owner(s): Judy Schad
• Main product(s): Goat cheese

Judy Schad began raising milking goats and making cheese in the late '70s on a historic Indiana farm. Now her company, Capriole, carries a line of delectable goat cheeses that includes fresh chevre, soft ripened, and bloomy-rind semi-hard cheeses.

• Owner(s): Melissa Ben-Ishay
• Main product(s): Cupcakes and macarons

After being fired from a media job, Melissa Ben-Ishay followed her real passion and started a mini cupcake company with a tie-dye logo that would become a ubiquitous part of the Manhattan landscape.

• Owner(s): Marcia Nodel
• Main product(s): Pickles

This Michigan-based company offers a line of home-style canned goods that includes award-winning bread-and-butter pickles, savory herbed cherry tomatoes, and spicy pickled asparagus.

• Owner(s): Mookie Deitsch and Connie Deitsch
• Main product(s): Nuts and chocolates

Owned by a mother and daughter duo, this gift company provides thoughtfully crafted tins of chocolates, seasoned nuts, and other snacks for any occasion, as well special seasonal and holiday offerings.

• Owner(s): Jennifer Reynolds
• Main product(s): Sauces, rubs, dip and spread mixes

Inspired by her father's secret sauce recipe, Jennifer Reynolds started Sauce Goddess Gourmet to share her love of sauces and spice blends that are additive-free and made from fresh vegan ingredients.

• Owner(s): Aishwarya Iyer
• Main product(s): Olive oil and vinegar

Using olives and fruits from family-owned California farms, Brightland delivers the highest quality unadulterated oils and vinegars to promote clean, healthy diets and a connection to the land.