You might wonder how we got started with a food - amaranth - that you may not have even heard about until recently. Amaranth, though an ancient food and a staple of the Aztecs, was introduced into this country about 20 years ago by the National Academy of Sciences who researched over 400 foods that had been in humankind’s food supply. They reported that amaranth, because of its incredible nutrition and flavor would be an outstanding food source for today.

Enter, Larry Walters, Food Scientist and principal Founder of Nu-World Amaranth Inc. Larry was introduced to amaranth by John Rodale who sponsored a food industry conference on amaranth. At that time there was 100% market potential but a US production base of 0% and 0% worldwide availability. Amaranth was not ready for the consumer food market! Larry saw the benefits of amaranth as a nutrition boost to the US diet though. He decided to experiment with raising it, got seed from John Rodale (Rodale Press) and he and his brother, Terry grew a few acres. The following spring a story appeared in Organic Gardening Magazine listing them as one of four growers in this country. As a result of that article, Larry and Diane’s (his wife) mail box was inundated with people who wanted to buy it, grow it and learn more about it! That’s how our business began.

We adapted machinery to grow and harvest the amaranth, developed methods for milling it, developed the equipment and process to puff it and then started teaching farmers how to raise it; a fledgling industry was born. Larry co-founded the Amaranth Grower’s Association and later The Amaranth Institute. We worked with universities on seed development, with cookbook authors and nutritionists on recipe development and, at our own kitchen table, continued product development. Our processing plant grew. We sold products through mail order and via the web. Our customers were primarily gluten-free and allergenic folks who discovered us primarily through word of mouth. We were small but passionate about this really great new food!

In 2001 our daughter, Susan left corporate America and joined us as President. Her desire was to be involved with helping people with food challenges find foods that they can eat and enjoy. The following year she encouraged us to expand our distribution via the retail health food market to make our products more widely available. We re-structured our company and in March of 2002 we took 6 of our favorite products and launched them in retail stores. Due to their success and customer requests for more ready to eat cereals and snacks that are tasty as well as healthy, one year later we launched 8 more products, our flavored Amaranth Cereal Snaps and Amaranth Snackers.

Our goal is to come out with a minimum of 2 new products or new product variations per year to meet the needs of a market who wants fun, convenient good tasting foods that also help to keep them healthy. We are always looking for new product ideas… click here to send us your food product requests.

Our Nu-World family has grown outside of the immediate family to include a top notch management team, plant and sales staff, growers, retailers, food advisors and consumers. We look forward to sharing with you over the coming months what's going on with us and the larger community as well. Let us know what information you would like us to see. Click here to send your ideas.