SIMPLi, a Leading Regenerative Organic Certified® Licensed Brand, Expands Nationally at Whole Foods Market to Increase Consumer Access with its Ever-Growing Collection of Pantry Ingredients

The mission-driven food company introduces a wide range of new products for consumers to enjoy, including beans, legumes, and grains, all bearing the Regenerative Organic Certified^® seal, set to hit shelves at Whole Foods Market nationwide beginning this April.

Baltimore, MD (April 3, 2023) – SIMPLi, a leading Regenerative Organic Certified^® licensed brand offering single-origin plant-based products, is significantly expanding its product line this spring. In addition to SIMPLi’s core line of grains, oils, and spices, the company is introducing a wide range of new Regenerative Organic Certified^® beans, legumes, grains, and superfoods, with eight products set to hit shelves at Whole Foods Market nationwide beginning this April.

SIMPLi, the ingredients brand delivering ethically sourced food for a better world, announced today it has secured an initial seed round of funding that will catapult its next stage of growth. The investment will allow the company to strengthen its national presence for B2B relations through additional organizational support and marketing initiatives that hone collaborations and partnerships. The funds will also enable recruitment to its best-in-class team and allow them to scale their operations, sales, and marketing departments.

Forward-Thinking Ethical Sourcing Practices

SIMPLi was founded in 2020 by native Peruvian Sarela Herrada and her husband, Matt Cohen. SIMPLi partners directly with farming communities around the world to ethically source authentic, single-origin Regenerative Organic Certified^® ingredients and bring them directly to consumers. By building simpler and fully transparent supply chains, middle distribution channels are eliminated, resulting in a first-hand impact approach on the environment and the farmer, so the livelihoods of the farmers and their communities are greatly improved.

“Matt and I founded SIMPLi to create a fairer food system that restores the planet’s natural resources rather than depletes them, and we can't think of a more trusted retailer to launch our new products with than Whole Foods Market,” says Sarela. “With the launch of our new products, we are extremely proud to become one of the leading Regenerative Organic Certified^® licensed brands helping spotlight the best practices for healthy communities and the planet while providing delicious and nutrient-dense products to consumers across the United States.”

SIMPLi’s climate-friendly sourcing practices are central to its mission to transform our food system into one that’s good for people, the planet, and farmers. SIMPLi is the first to market for a number of these Regenerative Organic Certified^® food products and has one of the largest portfolios of Regenerative Organic Certified® ingredients of any company in the U.S.

New Regenerative Organic Certified^® Plant-Based Products Soon Available Nationally at Whole Foods Market and Direct-to-Consumer through SIMPLi’s Website

Beginning in April, SIMPLi’s new pantry items will be available nationally at Whole Foods Market as a three-month first-to-market exclusive retailer. The soon-to-be-available products include Regenerative Organic Certified^® Lupini Beans, Black Beans, Kidney Beans, Gigante Beans, Chickpeas, and Amaranth. SIMPLi’s Lupini Beans are unique in that they are pre-cooked and dehydrated, which removes any bitterness that’s typically associated with this protein-packed bean, making them easier and more delicious for home cooks to prepare.

Whole Foods Market will also expand SIMPLi’s signature Regenerative Organic Certified^® Tri-Color Quinoa and Red Quinoa nationally. SIMPLi’s Regenerative Organic Certified^® White Quinoa and single-origin Extra Virgin Olive Oils will continue to be sold in select Whole Foods Market regions. SIMPLi’s new pantry foods are single-origin heirloom varieties and USDA Organic Certified, Fair for Life Trade Certified, and Regenerative Organic Certified^®.

“Whole Foods Market is deeply committed to supporting regenerative organic agriculture, and we are proud to launch SIMPLi’s new Regenerative Organic Certified® beans and amaranth exclusively in Whole Foods Market stores nationwide,” says Lizette Coello, Category Merchant at Whole Food Market. “The Regenerative Organic framework supports a holistic approach to farming with practices that help build healthy soil and sequester atmospheric carbon while advocating for farmworker fairness. SIMPLi’s current regenerative organic crops like quinoa already rotate with the beans, so now we’re bringing all of these products to market together to offer our customers a broad range of Regenerative Organic Certified® ingredients.”

Why Regenerative Organic Certified^®

Combining the best practices from Certified Organic and Certified Fair Trade, Regenerative Organic Certified^® is a new certification for businesses and products that goes beyond current certification criteria and meets the highest standards in the world for the following three pillars: soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker and social fairness. Consumer education is a critical factor in improving the health of people and the planet. As an industry pioneer with one of the most extensive portfolios of Regenerative Organic Certified^® ingredients of any company in the U.S., SIMPLi's full line of products enhances soil health and supports farmers, positioning them to continue leading the charge in repairing a depleted planet.

“It has been wonderful to work with SIMPLi on their Regenerative Organic Certified^® journey, and their national expansion with Whole Foods Market is a testimony to their commitment,” says Elizabeth Whitlow, Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. “SIMPLi’s dedication to investing in their supply chains and supporting farmers in the implementation of practices that increase soil health and carbon sequestration is completely in alignment with our mission: to heal a broken system, repair a damaged planet, and empower farmers and eaters to create a better future through regenerative organic agriculture.”

About SIMPLi

A woman-owned and minority-owned company, SIMPLi’s mission is to simplify and transform a flawed food system into one that is equitable and regenerative – good for the planet, people, and producers. The company, co-founded in 2020 by native-Peruvian Sarela Herrada and her husband, Matt Cohen, stands out for its commitment to plastic-free packaging for its beans, grains, legumes, superfoods, oils, and spices as an alternative environmentally friendly option compared to a largely plastic-filled industry standard. In an effort to commercialize sustainable and regenerative organic farming, SIMPLi works with native farming communities around the globe to transition their land to Regenerative Organic Certified^®, a method of farming that restores and regenerates the planet rather than depletes it (and also has strict criteria for worker and animal welfare). SIMPLi is a leading Regenerative Organic Certified^® ingredients company with Organic and Regenerative Organic certified products offered through its food service and retail channels and a strong pipeline of transitional farms on the way to certification, made possible through SIMPLi’s infrastructure and global distribution footprint.

Learn more about SIMPLi’s ever-expanding line of Regenerative Organic Certified^® products at eatsimpli.com and @eatsimpli.

Read the press release.