A love of cooking and a passion to know what's in the food she's eating were the basis for Kalpna Solanki's company, FX-Foods Inc.
The Burnaby resident produces innovative food products that are gluten-free and nut-free and has launched these new products known as Martin's Marvelous Naturals: crisps and granola.
"Things move pretty fast," Solanki, who's lived in Burnaby since 1991, said. "We tried to focus our products on Western Canada, but we get phone calls from everywhere."
Solanki was voted by Food in Canada magazine as a Top Ten Innovator and recognized by Progressive Grocer for her development of a baby and children food line.
"Our goal now is to really focus our product line and brand in Canada," she explained.
A BCIT and SFU grad, Solanki holds a bachelor of science degree in environmental health and a master's in business administration. BCIT also made her the recipient of its Distinguished Alumni Award.
"We know we make good products," she said. "But it's a great feeling to be recognized by the outside."
The six-year-old Burnaby company's mandate is to make sure 95 per cent of its ingredients are Canadian - right down to the packaging.
"We're really focused on Canadian grown ingredients," she said, adding that all the dairy in her products is from B.C. "All the packaging is Canadian, too."
According to Solanki, her products do not contain artificial colouring or flavouring, chemical additives or genetically modified ingredients.
"My family eats these products, too, so I don't use ingredients I would not feed to my family," she said.
There are 90 stores across Canada, and a few select locations in the United States that currently list her products.
"I cook in general with my family. We are foodies," she said. "We like cooking and entertaining, but we like to know what goes in our food."
The new product line includes crisps created by Solanki and her 10-person strong staff: rosemary-lavender crisps, pumpkin seed-cranberry crisps, sunflower seed and raisin granola and others.
"Generally, when things are gluten free, they taste awful," she said. "But now, with our crisps (and granola), a lot of people are buying it for everyone."
Solanki first developed a line of organic baby food, Bobo Baby, but was asked to also create gluten and nut-free snacks for adults as well.
"People asked me, 'How about stuff for parents?'" she said. "We were already making the granola at home, and we decided to do the research and develop it to make it gluten free."
It took about one year to esearch and develop the next line of products down to the last detail, according to Solanki.
"We get new store listings every day," she added.
For more information about Solanki's line of Martin's Marvelous Naturals visit www.martinsmarvelous.com.
