Plant-Based Brain Foods Head to the Baby Aisle

Cerebelly was developed by Canadian brain surgeon Teresa Purzner, who has a Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology from Stanford University in California. Purzner, a mother of three, told Forbes columnist Douglas Yu that she felt encouraged to start the brand after looking for healthy food options for her kids at a local grocery store, only to discover “the startling lack of genuine nutrition in so many products on the shelves.”

Rather than creating a line of products that fits all babies, Purzner noted each of Cerebelly’s pouches provides 15 to 18 customized nutrients for specific stages of brain development, adding the products are organic, non-GMO, 100% plant-derived, free from dairy and gluten, and have no added sugars.

At Whole Foods, variety packs, each of which retails for $8.49, are packaged according to age ranges that map to brain development: 5 to 7 months, 8 to 9 months, 10 to 11 months and over 11 months.

Her research is patented and examines the growth periods for each region of the brain from 3 to 18 months and determines nutrients needed for each of those periods, such as iron, zinc, protein, DHA and niacin.

According to Research and Markets, the global revenues of brain health market was about $2.3 billion in 2015, and they are expected to reach $11.6 billion by 2024, growing at a 19.6% during the period.

Meanwhile, Global Market Insights expects the revenues of the baby food category worldwide to surpass $32 billion by 2025.