Events are always a fantastic opportunity to meet. We would like to take this occasion to thank all those who followed our invitation to Food Zurich! We really enjoyed our joint dinner at tibits. Bravo to Reto Frei and his team for the delicious menu with algae that they concocted especially for the evening!
Before dinner in the beautiful Flower Room at tibits bistrot, Myriam from petit-grain-de-blog briefly interviewed Alver Co-Founder & CEO Mine Uran. Here is the transcript of their conversation:
1.) Mine, you are one of the founders of Alver and can look back on a career of over 20 years in protein research. What is it about proteins that fascinates you so much?
Proteins are the really important building blocks of our body and our nutrition. They are complex and fascinating at the same time. One protein is not like another. Proteins consist of 12 amino acids. These amino acids are different in different proteins and all have different functions. It is the importance to human nutrition and the complexity of proteins that have always fascinated me.
2.) You decided to leave corporate culture and become an entrepreneur with Alver. How did you experience this change and did something fundamental change in your life?
*Laughs* Yes, a lot is different! There are no other departments, you are alone with your partner. When we started, we were only two. There is no marketing department, no product management department, no human resources department, no legal department … so you really have to do everything yourself. But first you have to learn about all these things and also about yourself. It’s a fascinating journey. Very exciting. I really love everything I got to experience over the last two and a half years.
3.) Alver specializes in products with vegan protein, primarily based on the microalgae Golden Chlorella, but they also offer products with protein from mung beans and peas, among others. Is this the future of Alver: diversifying the portfolio and finding more and more plant protein resources?
Alver is a producer of high protein vegan foods. The idea is to offer truly vegan products. As long as it is not animal protein but vegetal, for us it is worth exploring and bringing it to market. We started with Chlorella because it is the most sustainable product. On the way to making the foods in our range, like our fantastic Protein Pasta, for example, we found that we need a different kind of protein to balance the nutritional value. For that reason, we also added protein from mung beans…
Many thanks to Myriam (www.petit_grain_de_blog.com) for taking the time to talk to Mine and to Avieta Claessens (www.avietaclaessens.com) for the nice photo.
All Alver products, information on ingredients and nutritional values as well as recipe ideas for vegan and vegetarian dishes with Alver Golden Chlorella, Golden Bean and Golden Pea can be found here >>>.
For media professionals: please send requests for interviews with Mine Uran or Majbritt Byskov-Bridges to media@alver.ch.
