Better-for-you Mexican cuisine brand serves up sustainability with new okara flour tortilla
Tia Lupita, a Bay Area Mexican food brand popular with Gen Z, is debuting an upcycled tortilla, the latest addition to its popular grain-free cactus tortilla line which has gained market share against major category players over recent months.
The new tortilla is the result of a partnership between Tia Lupita and Renewal Mill, a fellow Bay Area business leading the way in upcycled flour innovation. Renewal Mill’s signature ingredient, organic okara flour, is a grain-free flour with neutral taste and superfood benefits that fits seamlessly into the tortilla’s ingredient deck which includes other superfoods such as chia seed, avocado oil, and of course, nopales (cactus). The resulting tortilla will be launching via Amazon this month, where Tia Lupita has risen to distinction as the #1 New Release in the Flatbread Cracker category, and will be moving to retail shelves later this summer.
CEO Hector Saldivar set out with the goal of making the most sustainable tortilla on shelf, with fewer calories and fewer net carbs than competitor brands, and knew he’d found a perfect partner in Renewal Mill. Renewal Mill’s CEO Claire Schlemme met Saldivar through the Naturally Bay Area community during this year’s Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. Both companies are also members of the recently formed Upcycled Food Association, which is educating consumers about the critical climate benefits of food waste reduction and helping catalyze novel partnerships between upcycling brands during the COVID-19 crisis.
This is the latest in a line of partnerships for the burgeoning ingredients company which have included everything from ice cream (Humphry Slocombe) to baby food (Square Baby) to grain-free chips (Pulp Pantry). “This partnership showcases the versatility of okara flour. It can play in every category of the store, adding environmental, functional, and nutritional benefits to our partners, while allowing them to tap into a new story that resonates with the eco-conscious audiences they are trying to reach,” said Schlemme.
For his part, Saldivar added, “This generation of eaters is demanding better: better nutrition, better transparency, and better accountability from the brands they buy. By partnering with Renewal Mill, we are able to deliver on those demands.” Choosing upcycled is one step towards his long term vision: saving the world one taco at a time.
Grain-Free Okara Tortilla Product Details:
- 6g net carbs per serving
- 2g of fiber
- 45 calories
- Vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO
- Upcycled
- 10 tortillas per pack
- Made with 100% real food ingredients
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About Tia Lupita Foods
Tia Lupita Foods is a better for you, healthy Mexican inspired food brand based out of Northern California. We use clean, simple ingredients in all our products which include a line of family recipe artisanal hot sauces and a line of cactus tortillas and tortilla chips. Tia Lupita Foods is the first food brand in the US to introduce Nopales (cactus) as a functional ingredient in food. We are excited to continue to innovate our line of tortillas and partner with Renewal Mill to introduce the most sustainable tortilla on the planet made of Cactus and Okara. Tia Lupita is proud to be a member of the Upcycled Food Association bringing both better for you and better for the planet food to the market. With only two full years in business, we are in over 700 retail doors and growing.
About Renewal Mill
Renewal Mill is a female-led, next-generation ingredients company that fights climate change and global food loss by finding value in the overlooked and transforming it into a unique portfolio of upcycled ingredients. We’re building a new circular economy of food that’s better for the people and the planet we love. Our flagship ingredient is okara, a high fiber, high protein, gluten-free flour made from the nutritious soybean pulp leftover when you make soymilk. We use the okara in a number of plant-based products including a vegan, soft-baked chocolate chip cookie, a 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour, and an upcycled brownie mix. To learn more about Renewal Mill and our growing list of upcycled foods, visit www.renewalmill.com, ‘like’ us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.