Monday, June 10, 2019

Collingwood woman created Chickapea

Shelby Taylor of Collingwood has created a new food that is finding customers across Canada and into Europe.

She invented Chickapea by blending chickpeas and lentils into a recipe for pasta, a favourite of children.

The result is a nutritious, gluten-free product.

Taylor got her idea from interviewing clients at her health-food store, learning that their families’ favourite meal was pasta and that they realized it needed to be healthier than so loaded with carbohydrates.

Tannis Toohey reports in the Globe and Mail how she began marketing her product in health food stores, won an entrepreneur contest at Georgian College and began gathering investors.

Then the product and business became more professional, including a big company to manufacture Chickapeas.

That led to listings in supermarkets, such as Fortinos, Sobey’s and Loblaws and even to marketing in Italy which is famous for pasta.