It all started with Bamba, a popular Israeli peanut butter snack for kids. This soft food is often given to babies in Israel – and has accidentally prevented them from developing peanut allergies.
According to Daniel Zakowski, co-founder and CEO of Ready, Set, Food! (RSF), an allergen mix-in product, there have been four randomized, controlled trials that have shown that early and frequent feeding of allergens to babies can prevent between 70% and 90% of food allergies.
Based on the trials, new medical guidelines in the United States and abroad say that to prevent food allergies, all babies should start eating allergens early and often, starting at four months and continuing (with guidance from a doctor) on an ongoing basis.
“Even now, two-and-a-half years after the guidelines came out, only 15% of new parents knew that they could prevent food allergies by feeding allergens early and often,” Zakowski said.
When his nephew developed severe food allergies five years ago, Zakowski saw not only a good business opportunity, but also a chance to save hundreds of thousands of babies every year in the U.S. from developing food allergies.
“One thing that my grandparents really instilled in me is that each person can make a big difference in the world,” he said. “My grandmother was the first female president of the Jewish Federation and my grandfather was an early president of AIPAC.”
The mission at Ready, Set, Food! is to give parents the tools they need to help ensure their baby has a future of food freedom.
Zakowski has known co-founder, Dr. Andy Leitner, since they were kids. In the 1990s, they attended Sinai Akiba Academy together and then went to Harvard Westlake, where they were in the “Jewish Awareness Club,” along with one of their early investors, Bryan Berkett. “We had a lot of overlapping time even before we started a company together,” Zakowski said.”I married my wife Jackie Matthew, an Agoura hills native, in 2011, and Andy married Jackie’s sister, Marissa Matthew, in 2014.”
Their kids are around the same ages, as well. Their oldest children are 8 and 7-years-old, and they both have 5 and 3-year-olds; the youngest have used RSF. Leitner’s middle child is the one with the food allergies.
“Andy had already heard about food allergy prevention,” Zakowski said. “My nephew has eczema, which puts him at a higher risk for food allergies, but my nephew wasn’t ready to eat all of those foods at such a young age. And by the time he was ready, it was already too late.”
Zakowski and Leitner knew they had to make it easier for parents to feed allergenic foods, such as peanuts and eggs to their baby, starting as early as 4 months of age. “It was obvious to us as parents the only thing that babies reliably eat at 4 months of age is a bottle, so we knew we had to make it possible for parents to feed peanuts, eggs and milk to their baby through a bottle,” Zakowski said.
To develop their first product, they worked with two friends from the Jewish community, Dr. Katie Marks-Cogan, who is RSF’s Chief Allergist, and Aaron Rowe, a scientist in Zakowski’s kitchen. After validating the product themselves, they asked friends to try it with their babies.
Over the last several years, Zakowski, who along with his partners went on Shark Tank and raised money from Mark Cuban, have steadily grown their company.
Over the last several years, Zakowski, who along with his partners went on Shark Tank and raised money from Mark Cuban, have steadily grown their company. By partnering with major healthcare enterprises such as Providence Health, they are helping to educate 250,000 parents per year about food allergy prevention.
“[Providence Health] actually embedded our educational tools in their electronic medical records, so that every patient visit under the age of one gets educational material,” he said.
Ready, Set, Food!’s patented system was created to make it very simple for all parents to feed allergens, such as peanuts, eggs and milk, to their baby by including allergens in the foods they’re already eating, whether it’s a bottle of breastmilk/formula, baby oatmeal or snacks.
Their products range from one that’s just peanut, egg and milk powder that dissolves in a bottle of breastmilk or formula to baby foods with nine allergens pre-mixed inside. They also have a guidance system that helps parents add on more allergens when their babies are ready for food. All products are organic, non-GMO and have no additives.
RSF, which improves kids’ quality of life and saves kids’ lives, also has an education website – PreventAllergies.org – to teach people about food allergy prevention. It also provides DIY recipes.
“Missing the window for early allergen introduction, and having your baby potentially develop severe food allergies, is a choice that sticks with you forever.”
– Daniel Zakowski
“There are many parenting decisions that matter, but often we obsess so much about choices that we won’t remember one year later, let alone by the time they are adults,” Zakowski said. “Missing the window for early allergen introduction, and having your baby potentially develop severe food allergies, is a choice that sticks with you forever.”
