In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Melissa Bermudez, founder of Unrefined Foods — frozen muffins made with 100% stone-milled whole grains and real fruits and vegetables. Melissa's path to founder started far from the kitchen: investment banking at JP Morgan, a hedge fund, business school, and stints at Walden Local Meat and a Big Ag financing firm, before landing at her kitchen counter with three kids under three (including twins) and a KitchenAid full of shredded zucchini.
What began as batch-freezing muffins to survive school lunch mornings turned into a mission-driven brand tackling one of the most overlooked corners of the food system: wheat. While gluten-free has dominated the conversation for years, Melissa is betting on fresh-milled, stone-ground wheat — and the direct farmer relationships needed to source organic and regenerative grain in a market where only 2% of U.S. wheat production is certified organic.
Caitlin and Melissa dig into why fresh-milled flour tastes nothing like store-bought whole wheat, the operational tradeoffs of a two-day shelf life muffin, why the freezer aisle might be the real frontier for changing how families eat, and the viral added-sugar demo that turned heads (and briefly a customer's stomach).
Listen in as they discuss:
- Why fresh-milled wheat flour is a completely different product from anything on grocery shelves — and the coffee bean analogy that explains why
- Melissa's path from Big Ag financing to founder, and what working directly with farmers taught her about the realities of the commodity system
- Why only 2% of U.S. wheat is organic, and how Unrefined Foods is building direct farmer relationships to change that
- The chaotic kitchen-counter origin story: three kids under three, an overflow of neighbor zucchini, and a muffin recipe that became a business
- Why Unrefined Foods chose frozen over fresh — and how a 2-day shelf life shaped the entire product format
- The case for the freezer aisle as an underrated tool for delivering high-quality, less-processed food to time-strapped parents
- How Unrefined Foods is using bakery-adjacent placement (like near pie crusts and waffles) to become a "category expander" in the frozen section
- The maple syrup demo video that showed shoppers exactly how much added sugar is hiding in a typical bakery muffin
- Why Melissa deliberately keeps her muffins less sweet — and lets parents decide whether to doctor them up
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Show Links:
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- Episode music by Super Fantastics
