Abeego Was Named The Best Reusable Food Wrap | Here's What That Means to Toni

We’re no stranger to running experiments here in the Abeego Test Kitchen. It’s where we observe, weigh, & taste foods stored in Abeego reusable food wrap vs. plastic wrap or nothing at all. When it comes to keeping food alive & tasty, Abeego is victorious. Every single freakin’ time. 

While it’s one thing to share these results from our own trials, it’s another to see Abeego recognized by an organization known for their rigorous & reputable testing of foods, kitchen equipment and more: Cook’s Illustrated & America’s Test Kitchen.

We’re grateful & humbled by their testing of six different reusable food wraps. Spoiler alert: Abeego was named the best overall! Find the full test here.

We sat down with Toni Desrosiers, Abeego Founder & CEO, to understand what this recognition means to her. 

In this blog post you’ll learn:

• Why Toni intentionally refrained from patenting beeswax food wraps
• Why Toni thinks Abeego was awarded this title
• How Toni feels about sparking a worldwide trend of reusable food wrap

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU, THE INVENTOR OF BEESWAX FOOD WRAP, TO HAVE ABEEGO NAMED THE BEST REUSABLE FOOD WRAP? 

Toni: "Abeego being awarded the coveted title “the best” brings me great pride and is a prized gold star that will fuel me for years to come. I’m the kind of person who likes to be put to the test, thrives under pressure and won’t accept a participation badge. I appreciate the in-depth testing methodology the team at Cook’s Illustrated & America’s Test Kitchen employs to prove a product is the best. I’m proud of you, Abeego!"

Toni: "From the very beginning of the Abeego journey, I knew I would not be alone in the category of reusable & sustainable food wrap. I didn’t simply stumble across the idea--it pursued my every waking and sleeping moment. I knew it was my responsibility to lead the market and beeswax wrap felt like my great contribution to the world of food.

Slowly but surely, versions of beeswax wrap popped up around the world and the conversation around storing food in a better and more sustainable way grew, exactly as I hoped it would. 

I can’t tell you how many times someone has assumed I’m now kicking myself for not patenting Abeego. I made the intentional decision to not protect the idea when I made my ingredients publicly available in 2009. I fear this scarcity-based mindset stifles beautiful & world-changing ideas everywhere and prevents humanity from bringing them to life for fear they will be stolen. 

While there’s a certain amount of shame baked into competition, there’s a difference between having an original idea vs. seeing, liking & replicating something. At Abeego, we understand very intimately why we do what we do. Intention is tightly woven into our formula, mission & values and it can’t simply be copied. 

It takes one person with the bravery to let an idea go to impact change around the globe. Imagine a world where these ideas came to fruition without fear. The positive change would be exponential! We’re all in this together and can do more good collectively than we can alone."

ASIDE FROM THE INGREDIENTS & FORMULA, WHY DO YOU THINK ABEEGO WAS NAMED THE BEST?  

Toni: "Abeego was awarded this title because it was intentionally created to extend the life of food by mimicking nature’s peel, skin & rind, all the while offering the convenience of single use plastic wrap. Our mission doesn't stop at sustainable food wrap--it ripples on toward endless possibilities of food sovereignty and forging a deeper connection with food and each other. This has set us apart from day one. 

We spend our days helping the world understand what to expect from a new food wrap; green avocados for days, perky herbs for weeks and zesty lemons for longer than ever imagined. Abeego is more than a tool to eradicate plastic from the kitchen--it has literally changed the community’s perception of food’s potential. 

We obsess over the “why” behind every decision we make and it’s been that way since the moment we handpicked the ingredients and tested them on a piece of fabric. 

Today, we continue to ask ourselves: “Why?”

• Why are the features of plastic wrap desirable? 
• Why, as a population, have we become comfortable with food spoiling well before it would have if cared for properly? 
• Why are we not cool with a reusable & aging material that’s loved every piece of food it has wrapped? 
• Why hasn’t the dialogue changed so food lovers around the world accept a food wrap that’s different and better than what they've used for the last 50 years? 

Abeego is Abeego. It’s not an alternative to any other material. Its features need to be understood and celebrated for what they are and not how they compare to what we already know."

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