Free to Feed will use these grant funds to bring the first at-home human milk allergen test kit to market in the US, with plans to expand availability globally.
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Free to Feed’s at-home test kit represents the first product to allow parents, pediatricians, and lactation consultants the ability to quickly evaluate human milk in real time to isolate the allergen and adopt or prescribe appropriate dietary changes.
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A staggering 25% of parents report infant food reactivity and recent studies have found this number to be steadily increasing year after year (1).
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Free to Feed is revolutionizing the way families navigate infant food allergies by empowering them to identify and resolve the root cause of symptoms.
Durham, North Carolina - America’s Seed Fund, powered by the National Science Foundation (NSF), awards Free to Feed with a quarter of a million dollar grant to bring the first at-home breast milk allergen test kits to market in the US. This grant will allow Free to Feed to advance their work in real-time allergen detection technology for dietary proteins transferred to human milk. The allergen test kit will empower parents to experience a faster and more efficient journey to identify their infants’ food allergy triggers, and resolve their infants’ symptoms at the root cause.
Free to Feed is a woman-founded biotechnology company revolutionizing the way families navigate infant food allergies by empowering them to identify and resolve the root cause of symptoms.
The innovation of at-home breast milk test kits was inspired by current food manufacturing allergen detection kits designed to uphold FDA allergen regulatory standards. By leveraging the technology and knowledge the food industry has been using for decades to test for allergens in cow's milk, Free to Feed aims to utilize a similar technology to detect allergens in human milk to enable parents to continue breastfeeding while identifying and managing infant allergies. The technology will allow parents to verify likely allergen triggers and monitor their presence during an elimination diet.
Trillitye (Dr. Trill) Paullin, PhD earned a doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology, is an Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran, is currently serving her 18th year in the Army National Guard, and is the CEO and co-founder of Free to Feed. After her daughters suffered through food reactions to proteins transferred from her diet to breast milk, Dr. Trill wanted to create a place for parents to find answers and empower them to reach their feeding goals. Free to Feed was born to provide the research, resources, and support she wished were accessible during her journeys with food reactivity early on. Dr. Trill invented the aforementioned at-home test kit, the first of its kind, to detect allergens in human milk.
Breast/body feeding is nutritionally preferred for infants, when possible, as it [1] [2] provides natural antibodies to fight illness, reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, and lowers the probability of developing disorders such as diabetes, leukemia, and other diseases. Studies have revealed a steady rise in infant food reactivity, with 25% of parents reporting this issue(1). The current medical advice is to switch to a hypoallergenic formula when allergic symptoms occur, which is not ideal as these formulas are nutritionally inferior and significantly more costly than standard formulas. Additionally, elimination diets on their own are extremely challenging to navigate and have proven inadequate as the presence of allergens in human milk varies greatly. Free to Feed aims to offer families a solution other than blindly trialing elimination diets or switching exclusively to hypoallergenic formula.
Free to Feed’s at-home test represents the first product to allow parents, pediatricians, and lactation consultants the ability to quickly evaluate human milk in real time to isolate the allergen and adopt or prescribe appropriate dietary changes. Using the proven lateral flow approach, this innovation will allow parents to verify likely allergen triggers and monitor their presence during an elimination diet. Free to Feed empowers parents to reach their feeding goals by removing the mystery of what dietary proteins are present with real-time results and personalized support.
Free to Feed has secured over $1.5M in financial support from grants, accelerator programs, and investor funding alike. To join the human milk test kit waitlist, visit FreetoFeed.com/waitlist.
About Free to Feed™
Free to Feed is a biotechnology company helping parents navigate infant food reactivity through research, products, and services. Navigating infant food reactivity is not a one-size-fits-all issue. Each family experiences different symptoms caused by often unknown food triggers in formula or transferred to breast milk. Free to Feed offers the first-ever science driven holistic approach to help parents alleviate symptoms by identifying the root cause, while also prioritizing maternal health. Free to Feed provides clinical research, education, products, community, and individualized consultations built by fellow food allergy warriors.
About the NSF’s Small Business Programs
America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $2 million to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $9.5 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. For more information, visit seedfund.nsf.gov.
@trill@freetofeed.com I adjusted slightly - thoughts?
Looks good!
Resources:
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Luccioli, Stefano, et al. "Maternally reported food allergies and other food-related health problems in infants: characteristics and associated factors." Pediatrics 122.Supplement_2 (2008): S105-S112.
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