Azhar Murtuza - Founder of Born Maverick Food Innovation Ltd. -
Azhar Murtuza - Founder of Born Maverick Food Innovation Ltd. -
Azhar Murtuza
Founder of Born Maverick Food Innovation Ltd.
I’m the Founder of Born Maverick Group, a group of highly innovative backend bio-engineering companies working in the food industry through different bases with strategic partners. We design and create new healthy food products delivered in a caring and sustainable way that is good for the earth and its inhabitants. We’re not exactly environmental activists or crusaders, but we care - a lot. Having licensed out 3 innovative projects back in 2021, we started working with industry experts on solid state fermentation projects in order to pursue the vision of developing nutritious and clean label food which is affordable and accessible to everyone.
Current projects include:
No-G-Co - A plant-based cocoa alternative offering health benefits beyond taste—boosting serotonin for mental well-being while supporting gut health. No-G-Co delivers guilt-free indulgence with a minimal environmental footprint.
The REVIVE platform - An advanced fermentation platform designed to convert carbohydrates, hemicellulose, and cellulose into complete proteins with high bioavailability and digestibility. Revive (Revitalising Exceptional Values from Industrial Vestiges and Extras) utilises surplus agricultural resources, transforming waste into valuable nutrition—contributing to a circular economy.
The ElegNT platform - short for Enhanced Legume Nutrition - is designed to break down oligosaccharides within pulses to reduce bloating and increase nutritional levels to be used in various applications of healthy snacking by increasing proteins and reducing calories.
What does sustainability mean to you?
At Born Maverick we take it as our responsibility to constantly contribute towards making the world sustainable. This is done with our AirBnB model of accessing research experts and facilities to cut down overhead costs and help fast-tracking innovation within the food industry. We are always striving to prevent finding another set of problems in 3-5 years. We fully understand that there is a climate emergency and no time to relax.
How do you incorporate sustainability into your design practice?
We work on products which are from diversified sources without heavy reliance on mono crops yet address the nutritional aspects through simplified ways so that we don’t have to mask flavours or add many ingredients to achieve acceptable taste and/or texture. This helps us bring down the costs and also gives consumers a choice to select from a range of products without burdening the consumer's pocket or affecting the planet.
Do you have any advice on how designers and design businesses can incorporate sustainability into their design practice?
Make sure you sweat the small things and get the basics right. Nail the research! This is particularly important when it comes to food innovation as we are in a sector where our solutions can either positively transform or be a detriment to the livelihood of consumers and the existence of the planet. So, make sure you have a bigger picture in sight rather than short term fixes to capitalise on!
Are there any resources you can recommend that have helped you be more sustainable in your design practice?
We are all witnessing the consequences for companies who tried to capitalise on the trend of plant-based products without really addressing the actual issues of sustainability, costs and nutrition along with taste and texture. The demand for many brands is dipping because they are not contributing towards sustainability due to over-exploitation of crops and they are not reaching taste and/or texture or nutrition through eco-innovative methods either. The result of this is an ingredient list heavily bombarded with stabilisers/gelling agents etc. This would take away 60-70% of products from the shelves in the next two to three years. So make sure to assess the situation in a real time by seeing yourself as one of your consumers and then design the product.