Episode
The Case for Frozen Muffins: How Unrefined Foods Is Bringing Whole Grain Nutrition to the Freezer Aisle
- Podcast
- The Startup CPG Podcast
- Published
- Jul 17, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1712
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/341169e0
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-startup-cpg-podcast-1235739/episodes/the-case-for-frozen-muffins-how-unrefined-foods-is-bringing-whole-grain-nutrition-to-the-freezer-aisle/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-startup-cpg-podcast-1235739/the-case-for-frozen-muffins-how-unrefined-foods-is-bringing-whole-grain-nutrition-to-the-freezer-aisle.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Melissa Bermudez, founder of Unrefined Foods — frozen muffins made with 100% stone-milled whole grains and real fruits and vegetables. Melissa's path to founder started far from the kitchen: investment banking at JP Morgan, a hedge fund, business school, and stints at Walden Local Meat and a Big Ag financing firm, before landing at her kitchen counter with three kids under three (including twins) and a KitchenAid full of shredded zucchini. What began as batch-freezing muffins to survive school lunch mornings turned into a mission-driven brand tackling one of the most overlooked corners of the food system: wheat. While gluten-free has dominated the conversation for years, Melissa is betting on fresh-milled, stone-ground wheat — and the direct farmer relationships needed to source organic and regenerative grain in a market where only 2% of U.S. wheat production is certified organic. Caitlin and Melissa dig into why fresh-milled flour tastes nothing like store-bought whole wheat, the operational tradeoffs of a two-day shelf life muffin, why the freezer aisle might be the real frontier for changing how families eat, and the viral added-sugar demo that turned heads (and briefly a customer's stomach). Listen in as they discuss: Why fresh-milled wheat flour is a completely different product from anything on grocery shelves — and the coffee bean analogy that explains why Melissa's path from Big Ag financing to founder, and what working directly with farmers taught her about the realities of the commodity system Why only 2% of U.S. wheat is organic, and how Unrefined Foods is building direct farmer relationships to change that The chaotic kitchen-counter origin story: three kids under three, an over…