Toxic Tupperware? The Better Food Storage Alternative | Behind the Brand

Jessica, it is such a pleasure to get some time with you. I always see you at events, but I rarely get to just like sit and talk with you. And, and honestly, I don't actually know your story. Like what, what made you start your business ReVessel?

Okay. Ooh. So ReVessel was absolutely born out of Um, uh, out of necessity. It was about a decade ago that I didn't even recognize myself. My health, uh, had deteriorated so bad. Um, I was a lifelong athlete, high level, competed at, you know, kind of the top level in gymnastics. Um, and never really understood the connection of food to both performance and recovery and all that good stuff. So continued along, uh, along the path of just, um, we call it the standard American diet, you know, did that for, um, you know, the first 30 years of life essentially. And, um, found myself with 2 kids and my husband, and I looked on the outside as healthy as can be, um, just fit, but on the inside, there was chaos going on. So, metabolic chaos, mitochondrial dysfunction, basically my systems were shutting down because I hadn't created the conditions for health. So, at the age of 33, I experienced my first— I guess my first exposure to autoimmune disease was my mother-in-law who was diagnosed with ALS. So I was heavily researching what that was, what is autoimmune disease, and then right before my eyes it was happening to me. And it just didn't happen overnight, obviously. It was a long, long, long journey to get there, which is good news and bad news because we can be doing it for so long. So 33, I'm looking at my life and I'm looking at my kiddos and going, am I going to end up You know, in that same in that same situation where you know it's a fatal neuro neurodegenerative disease, and I didn't know what was going on in my life. But I had I had a lot of symptoms, cardiac symptoms, hormone symptoms that were just you know just just not acceptable to me as somebody that is always you know seeking optimal. I wasn't seeking optimal in my own health, and so I kind of started to. look at what that might look like. So started seeking care allopathically, started firing doctors after I was kind of not finding their answers to be adequate for me, knowing that there was real healing, but didn't know how exactly I was going to get there.

But it's so interesting because a lot of people, when they have health issues come up, they become a practitioner or something like that, or they start a food brand or something. But you specifically move towards the containers we're using to store these foods.

Right. We became the vessels for how are we going to make it easier to take good food anywhere. And that was a big challenge because people don't live their lives in a kitchen. They live their lives at work or at a sports field or at an office, teaching students or in a medical facility. Real people are out in the real world doing real things. And so how do you have real food wherever you go? So we absolutely kind of went back to the, to the really the beginnings of do we know how to cook? Do we know how to, you know, to plan a day where, you know, you're thinking about the noon hour or you're thinking about the 5 o'clock hour, you're thinking about your kids and how you're going to transport food. And it really came down to Well, people can pack food, but what are they packaging it in? And, you know, if they're not packaging it themselves, then who is preparing it for them? And the obvious answers are, well, they're clearly, you know, if they're getting convenience food, then it's going to come with, you know, with a cost. And it's not the high cost that we're talking about dollars. We're talking about the health cost. And then there's the, you know, there's the toxicity side of packaging food. And so many of the toxins that are burdening people's bodies and leading to chronic disease are coming from the food packaging itself. So toxins leaching in, whether it's a water bottle or whether it's a food container.

What are some of the toxins that are leaching into people's bodies, you know, and maybe correlate them to what That you just mentioned, for example, water bottles. But like, so when I think about what people are mostly using for packaging, so they're using some kind of plastic form, like to-go food item.

Yeah.

So you might be using what, like Saran wraps and foils, you know? So can you address the specifics?

You know, a lot of the things that are done in the commercial space, But, you know, when you think of to-go food, think of Styrofoams, you think of, you know, greaseproof containers that have a liner that are, you know, just contaminated with perfluorinated chemicals, with the styrene. Those are known carcinogens, right? So you've got estrogen-disrupting chemicals, phthalates and, you know, BPAs and the bisphenol, you know, category. So that's, that's a big exposure and hazard point when it comes to food is exactly, you know, I think those are probably the top 5, but aluminum, Saran wraps, Ziploc bags, the, you know, plastic, sometimes disposable, sometimes people don't dispose of them and they just microwave and reheat and, you know, store. for extended periods of time, that food. And then one of the things that people are becoming really savvy to when it comes to food storage is, you know, you, you might have a glass container, but that glass container, you put something hot like soup in there, and then all that evaporation goes up to the top on that plastic lid, meshes with the plastic, and then drops right back down into the food. So people are really, you know, we've seen over the last couple of years consumer demand increase for stainless steel and things that are safer, but also the durability. So people's natural evolution or natural path is kind of, okay, I got to clear out all the plastic food storage. I've got to get rid of anything that's nonstick that might have the, the, the perfluorinated chemicals. And so they, they arrive at the same thing that I did, which is Okay, glass. And then, you know, carrying around. So as a family of kind of on-the-go athletic folks, we're at hockey rinks, we're spending our weekends at parks and camping in an RV. And those types of materials are not super conducive, you know, when you're carrying around Mason jars and 9 by 13, you know, glass Pyrex dishes, those don't travel well. So people are looking for that combination of, well, I'm active and it's really not, practical for me to think about carrying my food for a couple weeks in glass when it doesn't stack well, but it also is very fragile and creates dangerous situations.

Yeah, absolutely. So, so, and, and I love how you're pointing out, like, a lot of people don't connect the dots of, like, okay, you know, when it's on the shelf, this hard plastic or this, um, the, the to-go containers that a lot of people are using, they may not be leaching then, but that's not how we use them. We're putting them in freezers, we're heating them in microwaves, and it's that process of the, the temperature changes that then make them more brittle. They, they either— or they make them softer, and then they start leaching into the actual food that you're storing.

Right. The process is called photodegradation. So it's light and heat that is breaking those materials down and causing them to be, you know, volatile and, and leach into the food.

So what materials— you already mentioned one, but what materials did you land on As being healthier and why? You mentioned stainless steel, but what are you using? Why did you choose stainless steel? And then secondly, what about your lids?

Yeah, well, again, I landed on glass and then, you know, with glass it's like, okay, there's got to be something better. So we had to have our list of ideals and values to understand, well, what does this material need to be able to hold up to? What are the challenges? What are the, you know, what are the, what are the the points A to B that people are traveling. It was sending my kids to school. It was at the same, you know, at the same time I was packing food to send them to school and the containers were coming home, either they'd pop open and the food would literally fall out all over the floor, or you'd have things that would transfer. Orange juice would transfer to a neighboring container. And so, you know, you have to really understand your value. Proposition. I wanted things to be completely leak-proof. I didn't want to have— you know, when I was, um, I was asked by several neighbors to prepare, you know, dinners. They saw how my kiddos were eating and they wanted to, to affect their kids' lives, but they didn't know how to do it, so they asked me to help them. And so I started preparing the same meals that I was making for my family, whether it was, you know, wild-caught salmon and broccolini Or, you know, a pork tenderloin or taco salad, whatever it was, all of those come with a different variety of sauces and, you know, sides and things like that. So to keep things separate, you don't want to have a salad that's dressed, you know, 2 hours before you get it. You want to have that salad dressing on the side. You want to keep it, you know, sealed. If it tends to tip, you know, you don't want that spilling out. So those are all the challenges that I were, you know, they were stacking up. And it's like, okay, what material can do all these things? What is lightweight enough? What is, you know, what is versatile enough? How can we get a great seal on there? So we employed folks that had, you know, the technical ability to seal camera housings underwater, which, you know, they're dealing with Navy SEAL, you know, contracts and things like that. And we're like, you're our guys.

Mm-hmm.

And so we started looking at the safety profiles of materials. We looked at both stainless steel and then from just that flexibility standpoint, we looked at the different, the different, you know, lid options and silicone really stood out as the best option for us. So silicone is kind of like a, like a flexi glass. You know, it has, it has great characteristics of being able to be heated. There, with anything, there can be additives. So, you know, we wanted to make sure that with every material that we use, that we had a level of comfort that it was going to be safe. So we certify our silicone with the European Union standards, their LFGB certification. So that's, that's basically the premier silicone that you could be using for food. It's not medical grade. You know, there's, there's use cases for medical-grade silicone. That's not what this is. But, you know, when you're ordering stuff off of like Alibaba or Amazon or something like that, you have no idea what additives could be included in there. With LFGB certification, you, you definitely have a much better idea.

Yeah. Wow. And then how are people— so you mentioned they're using them in their their kids' lunches, they're using them when they travel and in any capacity, whether it's to a game or as a picnic, as a family, whatever. But are you finding that it's covering— it is achieving all the things you want? Like there's no spillage, that people are— it's light, you know, those kinds of things. It's easily cleaned. Does it hit all the marks for you?

Yeah, it certainly does. So, you know, I'm not a gimmicky person, so I don't like, you know, flashy. I'm really— it really came down to function first. And once we achieved the functionality, then we could work on the ID, the industrial design, making everything as, you know, pretty and unique and start adding in those, okay, well, how can we make this easier to clean? How can we make sure that this stacks? You know, so, I guess, you know, efficiently that people are going to notice that they have more room in their cabinets. People are going to notice that, you know, when they have them stacked—

It stacks, right? Like, glass doesn't stack like the way this does. Yeah.

Right. So just efficiency across the board. And so, you know, you can literally prep a meal with the same container that you cook the meal. Then you can, you know, freeze the meal and then you can defrost it. And so I've gone from, you know, using Re-Vessel containers probably 50% of the time. What we ultimately didn't want is just another lunchbox that sat in a cabinet when you weren't using it out on the go. We wanted something that was so versatile that every space in your kitchen could benefit from ReVessel, whether it was the storage, whether it was the cooking, whether it was soaking beans, whether— I mean, we've even grown microgreens in our containers. It's perfect. You just pull them out, throw them on a plate for breakfast, do your little snip, snip, and you've got a little boost to your breakfast. So adding some broccoli sprouts, little tip here and there. My mom tip is though to always have food on hand. You never know where you're going to end up, even if you think you've just fed your kids and, you know, whether they're 2 or they're 16, they're always going to find a way to be hungry when you're not ready. So always have food on hand and this will make it really easy to do that, whether you're in a car or you're traveling on a plane and you need to throw something in the backpack.

So you can actually take the stainless steel container and have it in the oven as well.

Yep. Yep.

Wow. So the only thing you can't do is put it in a microwave, but that's the whole point is you're not encouraging people to microwave their food, right?

Right.

That's awesome. That's really, really good.

Most of our customers come to us and they go, oh, I got rid of that thing years ago. I haven't used a microwave in so long. So it's good to hear that. Um, and you know, the, the, the thing about the launch and the timing of our brand was You know, we really felt like we were early and people weren't ready for it. So it took a lot of, well, why would I, why would I not use plastic? Why would I, you know, why wouldn't I just take a packaged bar when, you know, and so there was a lot of education of, well, you know, looking at child health statistics and data around chronic disease and prescriptions and things like that and kind of Going, well, let's connect the dots. What's changed in our food system? What is, you know, what's being fed to our kids on a daily basis? Why are they having behavioral issues? Why are, you know, your 1 in 2 children facing a chronic disease by the time they're 18? Let's look at that. And so that was a real big wake-up call for me to kind of step into the boldness of, oh, well, so maybe my kids Because I have a little bit more control, maybe my kids won't be facing that statistic. But what about their peers? What's their quality of life going to be like if everyone around them is sick? And so that really got me on the bandwagon of education. So I started educating in classrooms. I started doing garden education, you know, getting kids to eat broccoli for the first time in a classroom and getting them really excited about it. So That was always something that I've kind of kept close to me is, you know, what's this next generation going to know? What skills are they going to have and how are they going to be able to pass those down to their kids? So it really came down to the root. You know, I'm a, I'm a root cause person. I'm a purist when it kind of, you know, as far as I can take it. And then like, what is at the root of this? And it was our, our connection to food. It was our connection to growing food. And so, you know, I'm constantly kind of pushing that, that side of it is the regenerative agriculture and the nutrient-dense foods and how do we actually get access to them.

I love that, you know, on the surface, you could just look at your, your products and go, well, you're, you're providing packaging, you know, but, but safe packaging, right? Clean packaging. But what I hear, and I, and I never really thought of it like this before our conversation today, but I really hear it now, which is, no, you're an advocate for people cooking from home, eating real food. The, the vessel is just, is just that. It's just a vessel, but really it's what's going in the vessel that's your focus. Is that correct?

Uh-oh, 100%. There's, there's, um, yeah, such beauty in how, and how you said it, but it's so true. We, we do want to see a life for some people of chronic disease turn into chronic health. And that's kind of the— how the mission hasn't really changed, it's just become clearer and clearer. And that's the easiest way for me to say it is, you know, if we can have a role in that, and also if everybody is carrying food that fuels them, that's optimizing their cells and the recovery, then our job is done. Our mission has been fulfilled. And we're just a small company that's trying to, you know, that's trying to impact that change. And so I'm certain that history will show that, you know, this brand started at that ripple or had an impact on that ripple. I won't take credit for starting that, but— Um, you know, definitely have, um, have confidence in that.

That's beautiful. So going back to what originally motivated you to go down this path and the sickness, what ended up being the mover for your health? Or what were— I'm sure there were multiple things, but were there some specific things that you did that— was that it? Was it, was it primarily like dietary change, cooking in, in focusing on real food versus packaged food, was that the biggest mover, you would say?

Yeah, that allowed me to get to a point where I could see other opportunities. Um, you know, so I prioritized that. I did not take it lightly. I took that responsibility as this is life or death. This is me either being on, you know, pharmaceutical life support for the rest of my life and dying longer as opposed to living longer. So I chose to lean into living as optimal as possible and just starting to ask a lot more questions. So became super, super curious and just asked why to everything, which I think we should all, you know, we should all be doing, asking a lot of why questions. So food was definitely that first door that allowed other doors to open. So, you know, I got into infrared saunas, a lot of cold and, cold thermogenesis, a lot of fasting. Fasting was a big game changer for me. Um, there were some other therapeutics that helped, you know, I did supplement for a while. Um, but, you know, organ meat became part of what I did. And so, you know, I can relate to a lot of people. Um, I, I, I— there are so many food protocols out there, right? But I just wanted to figure out, well, what's God's design for, for health? And so, that is still being explored and there's still some deeper study on that. But really, looking at the ancestral diets and of course, that led me ultimately for us to meet, right? Because if I wasn't at Weston Price or if we weren't talking about organ meat, we probably wouldn't have so much in common. You know, just, just new— what I called myself was not like paleo or not keto or any, any of those things. I just became a nutrient seeker. I became a nutrivore. Where can I not only source but then deliver to myself and to my family the most nutrient-dense food? And a lot of times that came from growing it myself, you know, in regenerative soil. But understanding how, if I wasn't growing it myself, how could I then get it from, you know, my local community?

So we're, we're interviewing you for January 26th, and there's a lot of people that are joining this challenge that may not have eaten, you know, may not have even tried organs yet, you know, that they're, they're complete newbies. So do you have any recommendations of how they can take first steps or what you would recommend they first do to start getting them? Because the challenge is they've got to eat them once a week for 4 weeks.

Oh, awesome. This is perfectly timed because we just— I think a post is going up this week on the ReVessel Instagram page. So I'm sure we're connected there and we'll be tagging, uh, tagging Pluck as well. Um, I think the easiest way is just to incorporate organ meat into ground beef. Um, you know, trying not to denature it as much as possible, there's the option of, you know, freezing it, you know, blending it, freezing it, and then taking those cubes after it's been in the freezer for a couple weeks, taking those cubes and blending them into smoothies, or just popping them whole, um, desiccated, you know, supplements and taking them that way. I've seen— so my 16-year-old is now more concerned about certain things with his body, namely his skin. I've seen some huge changes to his skin just taking organ meat supplements, just increasing his vitamins. His, you know, liver function has, has, you know, I'm assuming that those are the mechanisms of, you know, just helping his body detoxify and increasing his body's ability to do that through the, you know, the increase in nutrients. So I've seen some improvement in his face just in the last couple weeks that he's been taking some some of those supplements, and then we love pluck. So we're adding pluck to our you know taco nights and incorporating it into the seasoning that we use. So I think those are probably my my best. I don't love you know liver. I don't love. I'm one of those that is like nope, that is not for me to eat it in a you know from a sauté pan. So if I can incorporate it. And, um, the, the seasoning or whatever it is that's complementing it kind of balance it out. It makes it a lot more palatable for me.

Yeah, no, agreed. I agreed. Well, I'm so happy we had this time together. Um, how— so obviously the winner of Organuary is going to get some great ReVessel gifts from you. Um, but how can people that just want to get some now, who want to start using them during, um, this month, during the year, how can they, how can they order from you?

Well, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that we're sold out of our bestsellers. So we are in our next production run. And so the way we do it as a small company is folks can go to revessel.com and place an order. So it's a preorder. So you're getting a little bit of a discount for, you know, making a commitment to your health and to safer products. And then when our production is complete, we then ship those first to our preorder customers. So they're ensuring that they get access. And then we've got some other perks that they get along the way, but we're expecting that to be around the March timeframe. So either late winter or early spring is when we're expecting those next, uh, the next batch of inventory to get in.

Nice. Does this just mean you've had like the time during, you know, the holidays this year just to focus on family? You didn't have to focus too much on like selling stuff.

A little bit. I have some new projects that I'm launching. So, I've been doing a lot of podcast interviews and a lot of writing and just a lot of planning.

Products that are in the ReVessel line or completely different?

Combination of both. So, yep. So, more mission-driven around connecting consumers and their regenerative farmers and healthy children. But also we do have some new products in the pipeline that we're, that we're working on. So.

Excellent. Well, so, um, people can go to the website and then where can they— are you guys on socials? Can they, can they follow your community there?

Yep. So @ReVesselUSA is the Instagram handle.

Perfect. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for joining this year's Organuary. Um, it's always lovely seeing you. And I really enjoyed hearing more of your origin story and, and kind of what motivates you. And truly mean it, like, I, I feel like I heard anew what ReVessel is about. And I'm so— what a fantastic message. You know, we're always talking about that on our end, about how we need to focus on, you know, controlling the ingredients, cooking from home. Like, you cannot outsource your health, and you are modeling that with your company. So thank you so much for everything you do.

Thank you, James, for having me. I appreciate it. And thank you for helping me articulate that.

All right, thank you all. And check out ReVessel. And if you're the winner, you'll be getting some when they get it in March.