WisBusiness: The Podcast with co-founders of Reinvent Ferment

This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: The Podcast” features Karen and Eric Riggers, co-founders for Appleton-based food startup Reinvent Ferment.

After starting the company late last year, they began selling their fermented food products in early 2018. Though they do have their own version of sauerkraut, they also sell kimchi, and curried cauliflower as well as fermented fruit products like mango and raspberry.

Their goal with this company is to provide all-natural foods with positive benefits on digestive health.

“Living fermented foods introduce good bugs,” she said. “Your gut health is responsible for your immunity, it’s responsible for inflammation in body systems… we also know gut health is also responsible for our mental health — you have more serotonin in your gut than in your brain.”

She says that’s where the idea of “gut instinct,” or “gut feeling” comes from.

“In a western diet, that’s largely based on processed foods that we heat pasteurize to kill bad bugs, but we’ve also killed all of the good bugs that we find in whole foods,” she said. “Introducing fermented foods helps introduce good bacteria and kind of reset our microbiome.”