In our final 'Start-up spotlight' feature for 2025, we speak to Sly Foods: a producer of freeze-dried plant-based meals designed to fuel adventurous, outdoors-loving consumers in the most demanding of conditions. Sylvain Karpinski, the company's founder, tells us about Sly Foods' first year in business and his ambitions for the future.

Could you tell us a bit about your journey and what inspired you to launch Sly Foods?

It all started in 2021, when I made my first freeze-dried meals for a packrafting trip on the beautiful Magpie River in northeastern Québec. Later, I prepared a large batch of meals for my solo offshore racing project in 2022–2023, and I realised that most products on the market were boring and not nutritious enough.

A few months after returning from my solo Atlantic crossing in 2023, I decided to launch Sly using many of the recipes I had already developed for my own adventures. Things moved quickly, as I already had solid food-industry experience from founding [plant-based food company] Gusta in 2015.

How is Sly offering a differentiated and unique product line within the plant-based food and beverage industry?

First, our meals are 100% freeze-dried, unlike many brands that only dehydrate part of their ingredients. We cook each recipe fully, then freeze-dry the entire dish, preserving the taste, texture and nutritional value of the original fresh meal. Second, our recipes are genuinely delicious. And third, our portions are generous and nutritionally balanced.

What are the benefits of freeze-dried meals?

Freeze-drying is simply a way to make food lighter and long-lasting. When properly rehydrated, it returns to almost exactly the original meal, making it an ideal option when you’re out in the wild with access to water, or even at home when you’re feeling lazy and want a Bourguignon that took us two hours to cook, ready in just twelve minutes of rehydration.

Are there any misconceptions about freeze dried/ready-made meals that you would like to challenge?

Many meals on the market taste bad simply because the underlying recipe isn’t good, or because they’re dehydrated rather than freeze-dried, which means they don’t rehydrate properly and end up with a poor texture.

Most brands assume the average consumer is starving on the trail and will eat anything at that point. But that doesn’t work on longer expeditions, where your mental state matters just as much as your physical endurance. That’s where truly good food becomes a real game-changer.

How did you approach recipe development for the range?

Some recipes were classics I had been cooking for years, while others were entirely new creations developed by exploring what people are truly craving.

Are there any key food and beverage industry trends you believe your brand can uniquely address?

Consumers want convenient, great-tasting and high-quality meals. With Sly, you simply add hot water, wait a few minutes and enjoy a delicious, chef-level dish anywhere.

How do you ensure sustainability within your approach?

We use only high-quality ingredients, plant-based of course, and mostly local. In Québec, we benefit from clean hydroelectricity, which is ideal for powering our freeze-dryers. Once the meals are produced, they require no additional energy to store and have an exceptionally long shelf life.

Did you encounter any key challenges when formulating your range? How did you navigate them?

A few ingredients and matrices are notoriously difficult to freeze-dry. It took us quite a bit of R&D to truly master freeze-drying, from the formulation all the way to the process itself.

What is Sly Foods’ biggest achievement to date?

Getting into [outdoor retailer] Mountain Equipment Company, and being stocked in the pantries of most off-shore racing boats in Europe within just a few months of launching.

What’s next? Any exciting plans for the future that you can share?

New meals, a new secret line of products, new countries and a bunch of fun!

For aspiring start-ups in the plant-based food and beverage industry, what valuable advice or insights  would you share to help them navigate the challenges and opportunities in this dynamic sector?

If you design and market your product specifically for vegans, you’re limiting yourself to about 5% of the total market. If you want access to the full 100%, don’t build a product 'for vegans,' don’t target vegans and don’t lead with the fact that it’s plant-based.

It’s unfortunate, but even today most people won’t try something if you tell them upfront that it’s vegan. If you simply let them taste it, they’ll love it and they’ll buy it, even once they realise it happens to be plant-based.