Founder of BioSnactive, Jessica Ulbikas is a Guelph master’s student in human health and nutritional sciences
This summer, BioSnactive is launching its new product called Code Red, a fair-trade dark chocolate product that has clinically tested bioactive ingredients capable of alleviating the severity of menstrual pain. It contains magnesium, vitamin D, and calcium, which at the correct dosage can alleviate menstrual pain over time.
The idea of Code Red began in a functional food product development class in Jessica Ulbikas’s third year of undergrad. In a group, students were required to develop a food product with a health benefit and create a hypothetical business. Her group created a chocolate bar for menstrual pain.
Three years later, Ulbikas decided to apply to the John F. Wood Centre with hopes of developing a business idea, and the project from her undergrad came to mind.
The John F. Wood Centre has three programs called the Idea Lab, Ignite Lab, and Launch Lab to help students create, develop, and launch business ideas.
“I loved the product development classes that I took and I always felt very excited doing it. It was a fun challenge for me and I thought it would be cool to launch something in the future,” said Ulbikas. “I wanted to bring a product to life, especially something healthy, so when I heard about the John F. Wood programming, I applied and it went on from there.”
In Ignite Lab, Ulbikas applied with a new idea. When speaking with mentors, they loved the idea of the chocolate and encouraged her to pursue it as her business. That’s where she took the basic idea for that chocolate bar for menstruation and redeveloped and rebranded the product itself with a different name, different ingredients, and different bioactives to alleviate menstrual pain.
Starting from scratch with no business experience, Ulbikas completed the 10-week programming for the Ignite and Launch Labs. In attending these weekly sessions, Ulbikas was able to learn from mentors and people experienced in the field about finances, marketing, branding, and more.
Launch Lab provided the funding and opportunity to work with professional services to help launch Code Red. Ulbikas was able to work with a professional photographer, a digital marketing strategist, and a lawyer to aid in developing her business.
The vitamins in the chocolate have many functions in the body, especially calcium and vitamin D, which help with bone health and absorption. Magnesium is also beneficial to general muscle function and many other cellular processes. Almost anyone can eat the chocolates as long as they don’t take supplements with them.
“These ingredients are mostly tailored to pain relief in cramps,” said Ulbikas. “I think with calcium there’s a bit of PMS relief as well which is great. The good thing too about using these bioactive ingredients like calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D is that they are nutrients consumed generally. So if you are deficient in those nutrients in your diet, then having the chocolate is just an extra boost. It replaces supplements in essence so even if you don’t have menstrual pain you can still eat it and just get a boost of those nutrients as well. It’s just a more fun way to enjoy it.”
Instead of a bar, Ulbikas decided to make individual squares in order to pre-portion and avoid consumers breaking off too much or too little. Regulated by Health Canada as a supplemental food, the compostable pink packaging includes 10 squares of chocolate, with instructions to take two squares a day. They will sell for $9.99 per package.
After experimenting and workshopping recipes and flavours, Ulbikas decided on dark chocolate squares.
“It was important to me that it tasted good and that the bioactive ingredients wouldn’t be too strong. I had to make it high enough that it worked [and] not so high that it’s all you can taste. The feedback so far is that no one can really taste the ingredients,” said Ulbikas.
Still in the pre-launch phase, Ulbikas was able to show off her product at an expo at the University Center on March 26. Code Red was met with a lot of positive feedback and excitement about the product.
A product such as this one also opens up important conversations regarding women’s health and menstrual pain.
“Even before I made this product I thought bad cramps were just how it is. People don’t know you don’t need to have bad cramps when menstruating,” said Ulbikas. “There’s no other product like this on the Canadian market. Menstrual pain is rarely talked about and although women’s health is becoming more and more discussed, there is still a stigma there.”
She has been met with many people engaging in the product, caring about the science behind it, and wanting to learn more about their menstrual health.
“I am moving towards a launch in June,” said Ulbikas. “Originally, I planned to launch online and eventually go into a market but it’s hard to get people interested in a food product unless they try it. It was great that many people tried it at the expo and I could tell that they enjoyed it. I do want to launch online and I want to go into the Guelph Farmers’ Market. That would be a great way to get the word out and get people interested.”
To keep updated on Code Red, follow @biosnactive on Instagram and check out biosnactive.ca for updates on their upcoming launch.