Danny Weiss, chief executive officer of Wonder Veggies, introduces Fruitnet to its unique probiotic-infused fruit and vegetable concept
Can you offer a little background on Wonder Veggies?
Danny Weiss: Wonder Veggies is disrupting a US$1.5trn fresh produce market by naturally enriching fresh fruits and vegetables with probiotics to enhance gut health, for the first time ever, meeting the consumer’s growing demand for better gut health.
Where did the idea for probiotic-infused vegetable products come from, and how does the production process work?
DW: Following four years of academic research, I co-founded Wonder Veggies in 2022 together with professors Oded Shoseyov and Betty Schwartz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr Lilach Iasur Kruh of the Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel, and Gadi Lesin, the former CEO and president of Strauss Group, to create the future of fresh produce, a new and exciting category of probiotic vegetables and fruits.
Wonder Veggies probiotic liquid formulation can be applied on fruits and vegetables at both pre-harvest and post-harvest in the field, greenhouse, packhouse, or food production facility.
What benefits does this concept offer over traditional products?
DW: Probiotics can be found in dairy products, fermented foods, and in supplements. However, the issue with current consumption opportunities is that many people can’t or choose not to consume dairy, fermented foods, and supplements.
Bioavailability is also often very low as the acidity of the stomach kills most of the probiotic bacteria, or in case of supplements using a freeze-dried culture, the probiotics do not germinate at the gut.
Wonder Veggies’ formulation enables the probiotic bacteria to penetrate, propagate and survive throughout the entire shelf-life of the fresh produce, by turning the probiotic bacteria into endophytes.
This is beneficial bacteria that lives inside the tissue of the plants, therefore providing them very good protection against the acidity of the stomach and the required fibres (prebiotics), for effective colonisation in our gut.
It provides a powerful symbiotic effect and the highest bioavailability of all consumption opportunities without any limitations, as all of us eat vegetables and fruits. And it’s a non-GMO technology that does not change any of the organoleptic properties of the fresh vegetables and fruits like taste, colour, texture or smell.
What has the reaction been to the concept?
DW: In a recent survey conducted by a third party for one of our grower partners in the US, a leading company in its field with multibillion-dollar annual revenues, More than 80 per cent of the consumers demonstrated a strong buying intention, and more than 30 per cent were willing to pay an average premium of over 20 per cent.
Growers want new technologies to be integrated seamlessly with their existing processes, in the field or their production facilities, without adding significant processing time or cost. That is why our formulation was designed to be applied at the pre-harvest stage in the field or the post-harvest stage in the production facility.
We are offering our partners a complete solution, including the formulations and application protocols, pre-harvest and post-harvest, to make the integration process as easy and seamless as possible.
When are the products being rolled out, and what are your future plans?
DW: Wonder Veggies’ mission is to create a new category of healthier-than-ever probiotic produce in the market, contributing to consumer health and nutrition security.
No probiotic fresh vegetables and fruits exist today so we are expecting a big splash when we launch the first products together with our partners in 2025.
Within a few years, we plan to cover most fresh produce categories, starting with leafy greens, carrots and berries, to be followed by peppers, stonefruit and grapes, and we cannot see an end in sight for the potential of the Wonder Veggies application.
This interview was taken from Fresh Focus North America, a new publication from Fruitnet, available now
