25 Black-Owned Food Brands That Should Be On Your Radar

Making a name in the highly competitive food industry can be nearly impossible, and it seems like everyone has their own jar of sauce or premium spirit these days. But one thing is certain: These Black-owned food brands are on the rise and worth checking out. From ice cream to herbal tea to spice mixes that bring the flavors of Africa right into your kitchen, these food brands have something for everyone; every company on this list makes it their goal to bring a personal touch to your cooking.

Even better? Many of these Black brands are investing their time, energy, and profits back into their communities, pairing good food with good deeds. These philanthropic companies build giving into their bottom line. This may look like community investment in job training, mentoring young entrepreneurs, or donating money to worthy local causes. Now more than ever, these Black brands are lifting others up as they climb, and that's something worth supporting.

Brittany Williams started Eudemonia Herbs as a way to combine her deep understanding of herbal medicine with practical applications for everyday life. The word "eudemonia" means happiness or flourishing, and Williams uses her small, family-run shop to help people in the community do just that.

Williams grows, sources, and handcrafts small-batch herbal tea blends that promote health and wellness, but the magic goes well beyond that. She also uses her nearly three decades of work with herbs to craft puff puffs (herbal smokes), tinctures, and body care formulations designed to bring balance into people's lives. For those living in and around Baltimore, Williams offers in-person classes on everything from herbal remedies for children to crafting herbal cocktails.

If you like a bit of spice, a tangy sweetness, or a straight-up burst of flavor in your sauces and condiments, Basbaas Foods is here to serve. Inspired by the flavors of her home country of Somalia, Hassan designed each sauce and condiment to hit all the flavor notes of Africa:  a little sweet, a little spicy, and a little salty. Including a hint of acid and finished with fresh herbs, peppers, and dried fruit, each plant-based condiment is easy to use and an excellent addition to any kitchen.

Hassan is also the author of "In Bibi's Kitchen." This book is named for grandmothers — bibis — who share their stories and recipes from the eight African countries that line up along the Indian Ocean.

Grains are a staple ingredient for billions of people across the globe, and Berhan Grains is a company doing its part to feed the world with one nutritionally-charged option. The brand specializes in teff, the world's tiniest grain and one of the first to be domesticated in Ethiopia. Teff is naturally gluten-free and is high in iron, calcium, protein, vitamin C, and more.

Injeera bread is traditionally made with teff, but Berhan Grains has plenty of suggestions for ways to use it for more than that. Cook up the whole grain for use in grain bowls or as a rice alternative, or opt for the milled variety. Not sure how to cook teff? Start with one of Berhan's pancake and waffle mixes. The brand offers plain, cocoa, and chai varieties.

Golde is a health and beauty supplement brand that promotes glowing skin that starts from the inside. Launched from a Brooklyn apartment in 2017 by founder Trinity Mouzon Wofford, with a single product, the Original Turmeric Latte Blend, Golde has expanded to everything from subscription kits to single purchases of its signature matcha and other superfood blends.

This company aims to make wellness accessible and integral to its clients' everyday lives. Wofford believes that self-care is how a person becomes their best self, and she wants to provide a product experience that doesn't mean upending your entire life. Golde sells single-serve powders and blends that can be easily whisked into a morning smoothie for optimal nutrition and health. Choose your focus — detoxing, calming, or glowing skin — and sip away.

Erica Barrett founded Southern Culture Kitchen when she walked empty-handed out of a grocery store, frustrated by how much it cost to make a simple breakfast with quality ingredients for her family. What started out of frustration grew into a brand that now offers delicious pancake mixes, maple syrups, cornbread mixes, and savory options such as bacon rub, grits, and fried chicken seasoning.

And when Barrett appeared on Shark Tank in 2014, Barbara Corcoran bit, investing in the company and helping push it further along its culinary path. Today, Southern Culture Kitchen has expanded its breakfast mix flavor options and even offers gluten-free varieties.

Glory Foods was founded by Bill Williams in 1989 to bring the taste of Southern comfort food to homes and restaurants. Also, 80% of the fruits and vegetables in its products come from farms within 150 miles of the Glory Foods processing plant. This means that the flavor and nutrition are optimal when packed. Today, Glory Foods employs farmers all across South Carolina, each committed to producing and packaging beautifully seasoned, healthy canned, and fresh vegetables prepared in the Southern style for families across the U.S.

In 2010, Glory Foods was acquired by McCall Farms, a packer that worked with them for 20 years. Even with this change, the original family is still a part of the company: Bill Williams Jr. remains the Director of Sales, ensuring that the legacy and commitment to quality continues.

Necessity might be the mother of invention, but homesickness is a significant driver behind many of the Black-owned food brands on this list. Egunsifoods is no exception. Nigerian-born Yemisi missed the foods and flavors of her childhood and struggled to recreate them in her home in New York. She wanted to share her favorite dishes with friends, but it was time-consuming and challenging. This led her to found Egunsifoods in 2017, a brand specializing in ready-made soups and sauces with flavors from West Africa.

Choose from individual soups in meat- and plant-based varieties, or pick up a four-pack of red pepper sauce to slather on everything. Subscribe for a monthly delivery, or opt for a larger family pack to feed a crowd.

Inspired by his daughter, her 11 cousins, and the chaotic, joyful meals they shared in their extended family, the founder of A Dozen Cousins, Ibraheem Basir, set out to create a food brand with strong Creole, Caribbean, and Latin American flavors. This company provides a wide variety of rice, beans, and sauces to make delicious food whenever you gather.

But A Dozen Cousins is also on a mission to help others in the community. The brand's annual social impact grant provides money to non-profit organizations working to bring parity in health across socioeconomic levels. Among other things, these grants have funded organizations that promote better access to healthy food resources, provide birthing support for people of color, and work to educate previously underserved communities.

From the start, Red Bay Coffee knew it wanted to be different. Keba Konte founded the business in 2014 at the beginning of what he considers the "fourth wave" of coffee: An upswelling of sustainable coffee production that focuses on community, diversity, inclusion, and equity. It's not just about coffee — Red Bay utilizes this caffeinated vehicle to drive a movement towards expanded entrepreneurship and social and economic restoration in communities where equity has been absent in the past.

Red Bay prioritizes hiring practices that are more inclusive, gathering up those traditionally left out of this industry: returning citizens, women, people with disabilities, and people of color. It offers subscription packages, single-serve coffee packs, canned cold brew, coffee-making gear, and other merch to make your morning cuppa perfect.

As with many brands on this list, Pipcorn's story starts with family. Brother and sister team Jeff and Jen Martin were moving when they found a bag of popcorn left over from a trip to a health food store. Needing a quick snack, they popped it up, and their story began. The popcorn was an heirloom variety with an exceptional flavor packed into a tiny kernel. They found the farmer responsible for the heirloom popcorn, and Pipcorn was founded.

Pipcorn was well on its way before its appearance on "Shark Tank," where Barbara Corcoran hopped aboard and provided the siblings with an investment to help them power their brand to wider distribution. Today, Pipcorn has expanded from simple popped corn to other non-GMO snacks like cheese balls and crunchy twists.

Albert and Julie Ndjee missed their native cuisine of Cameroon. They found a wealth of other culinary options from Europe, but the flavors of Central Africa were nowhere to be found. Those few products on the shelves of specialty stores? These were packed with artificial ingredients, dyes, and fillers. So they decided to create their own favorites, refining the recipes as they shared them with family and friends. Neilly's Foods was only available in local farmer's markets until the Ndjees could finally leave their full-time jobs and devote themselves to bringing the flavors of Africa and the Caribbean to tables across the U.S.

Neilly's offers staples like quick-cooking rice mixes, premium plain rice, beans, and sauces. Just add water and bring the authentic flavors of Africa to your table, with no artificial ingredients, flavors, or added preservatives.

The mission of Iya Foods is straightforward: It wants people to feel the love from each product it makes. Iya Foods sells nourishing African superfoods such as fonio, tiger nut, and cassava, grown by small farms in Africa. Sourcing directly from these farmers means more money stays in the community where the products were grown.

Toyin Kolawolem, the founder of Iya, grew up with an entrepreneurial spirit, assisting her parents in Nigeria. She moved to the U.S. in 2003 to pursue an MBA and started Iya Foods in 2015. It was a way to combine her business skills with her desire to incorporate ancestral African foods and flavors into everyday cooking. Today, Iya Foods is a trusted purveyor of flour, flour blends, spice mixes, hibiscus and whole food powders, and gluten-free baking mixes.