Webinar | Women’s Nutrition: Nourishing Womanhood From Pregnancy To Menopause
11 September | 12 PM ET: Register Now

Free to Feed

Biotech startup helping parents navigate food allergies through an at-home breastmilk allergen detection strip.
2019
Nov-50
11-50
Durham, North Carolina, United States
  • Consumer Healthcare
  • Infant Nutrition
  • Pathology & Diagnostics
  • Services (Patient care)

Innovation

Industry Problem

Families managing infant food reactions lack a real-time way to identify dietary proteins transferred into human milk.

R&D Focus

At-home detection of food allergens in human milk

Innovative Solution

An over-the-counter allergen test that identifies various food proteins in breast milk. The users are both breastfeeding mothers who suspect infant food allergy/intolerance as well as breastfeeding mothers who wish to deliberately introduce food allergens to their infant early and often as recommended by the AAP.

Investment Funding

Last Funding Stage

Seed

Total Funding Amount

600.K

Last Funding Date

01-11-2022

Startup Stage

Seed

Lead Investors

SOSV, IndieBio

Revenue

Less than $1M

People

Founders

About

An over-the-counter allergen test that identifies various food proteins in breast milk. The users are both breastfeeding mothers who suspect infant food allergy/intolerance as well as breastfeeding mothers who wish to deliberately introduce food allergens to their infant early and often as recommended by the AAP. These women understand and appreciate the benefits of nursing as the healthiest, natural form of infant nutrition. This will be the first product to allow mothers, pediatricians, and lactation consultants the ability to evaluate human milk for allergens in real time. These users will be supported with the Free to Feed app. Mothers will annotate which allergens are present in addition to the date and time of milk expression and nursing/feed. Parents can also record any symptoms which will allow correlative and comprehensive data to assist medical professionals in determining the culprit. This data will be compiled in a summary page which can be shared with medical professionals. The number of reported food intolerance symptoms has spiked, and our understanding of early immune development is subsequently evolving. Converse to previous recommendations to avoid early top food allergen introduction, recent studies have shown early and sustained introduction to the infant diet may influence the risk of allergic or autoimmune disease for those patients who do not already exhibit allergic symptoms before one year of age. A meta-analysis of 146 studies concluded that early introduction was associated with a moderately lower risk of developing egg or peanut allergy. This has shifted the AAP peanut and egg recommendations without providing mothers with the tools to effectively introduce.

Products

Product

Free to Feed at-home human-milk allergen test and related education/consultation services.

Star Product

Free to Feed human-milk allergen test – the company’s central patented product in development.

Demo Product or Complete Product?

Product-development stage – at-home allergen test remains on a waitlist while education and consultation services are available.

Future Plan

Investment Funding

$275,000 NSF SBIR grant (2023); company reported more than $1.5M in grants, accelerator support and investor funding, including $600,000 pre-seed.

Awards and Recognitions

Participations

America’s Seed Fund / NSF SBIR Phase I program.

Something missing or incorrect on this page? Help us enrich this information