August 15 • 2019 41
jn

Recipe for Success

Desire for gluten-free baked goods led to business. 
W

hen Jessica Mindell started 
Jessica’
s Natural Foods in 
2009, she never expected 
it to be something she would still be 
doing 10 years later. The company has 
grown from its roots in Mindell’
s home 
in Birmingham to sales in more than 
30 states and is featured in major gro-
cery store chains such as Whole Foods 
and Wegman’
s. All the company’
s 
products are gluten-free.
Mindell has an engineering degree 
from the University of Michigan but 
has always had a passion for baking. 
During college, she worked one hol-
iday season at Zingerman’
s in Ann 
Arbor where she worked in a commer-
cial bakery. 
After working for a number of years 
in engineering, Mindell quit her job 
and began baking full time.
The inspiration for her company 
came shortly after learning that her 
husband has a gluten intolerance. 
Mindell’
s love for baking combined 
with the limited availability of glu-
ten-free baked goods led her to begin 
experimenting in her own kitchen. 

Eventually, she began taking small 
batches of her oat-based granola to 
local stores who agreed to sell them.
When perfecting her recipes, 
Mindell would often make little 
containers of the granola with small 
tweaks made to each container. She 
would number the containers and give 
them to friends and family, asking 
them to report back to her what they 
liked best.
Mindell, a mother of two, one of 
whom attends preschool at Temple 
Beth El in Bloomfield Township, 
often 
jokes that the company was her first 
child. She will also be the first to admit 
she didn’
t quite know what she was 
doing in the beginning.
“I didn’
t have a formal business 
plan,” she said. “When I was going to 
stores and offering samples, one store 
said they would take a case of each, so 
I had to go home and figure out how 
to make an invoice. All the stores are 
so supportive of local businesses.” 
This year, on its 10th anniversary, 
Jessica’
s Natural Foods got re-certified 
as a woman-owned business through 

the Women’
s Business Enterprise 
National Council (WBENC). 
“I am really proud of being woman- 
owned,” Mindell said. “It’
s a great way 
to connect with other small wom-
en-run businesses.”
In the 10 years since its conception, 
Jessica’
s Natural Food’
s product line 
has expanded to include syrups and 
mixes for gluten-free baked goods. 
“
All the products I have are based on 
needs for my family in my own life,” 
Mindell said. “My daughter wouldn’
t 
drink milk, so I created the strawber-
ry syrup to make it taste better. We 
wanted to get the kids on a gluten-free 
diet, but many gluten-free products are 
rice-based, which has a lot of arsenic. 
I wanted to create mixes that were not 
rice-based to cut down on the amount 
of arsenic my kids were getting.”
Mindell does not have a set business 
plan for the future but says she believes 
future products will also be based 
upon her family’
s needs. ■

To learn more about the company or purchase 
products, visit jessicasnaturalfoods.com.

JESSIE COHEN JN INTERN

COURTESY OF JESSICA MINDELL

Jessica Mindell

Member FDIC
How can we help you? Woodward north of 14 Mile 248.723.7200 boaa.com

B IRM ING HAM

HELPS

