Featured Partner: Prima Food For Sport

Q: How did you decide on your four final flavours?

A: Prima Food for Sport was “born” at Musette Caffe, the cycling cafe in downtown Vancouver. I was very fortunate to have had the chance to test out multiple bar flavours by selling through Musette before Prima was officially launched in 2013 – in 2012 we were selling the same bars at Musette, just wrapped in butcher’s paper. We tried a whole bunch of flavours and these four were the most popular! I wanted to offer unique flavours that I had never seen before in an energy bar, like our Chai Spice, which happens to be my personal favourite. It’s really great when you are out cycling or hiking to have food along with you that that tastes, well… good!

Q: How important is it to remain in Vancouver?

A: We make the bars out of a new commissary space on Industrial Ave, and our home base is still in North Vancouver. Everyone who lives here loves Vancouver and the North Shore, and it is a beautiful place to be making and selling food. In terms of a locally focussed start-up like Prima, Vancouver is a great place to be, because people support small companies, and we have a very active population which appreciates our products. It has also been great getting to know lots of other folks in the local food business and supply chain, over the last couple of years. We work with local suppliers as much as possible, right down to our packaging, which is made in Coquitlam, B.C.!

Q: What inspired you to create locally sourced and optimized “food for sport”?

A: My background is as an elite road cyclist! While I was racing with the Canadian National Team, we competed in France and Italy, where we were exposed to European cyclist diets. It was an eye-opener, since in Europe, professional cyclists eat mostly “regular” food. For example, they grab dried fruit instead of energy gels, and rice cakes or sandwiches instead of processed energy bars.

I have also studied Food, Nutrition and Health at UBC, so I know understand how detrimental processed food is to our health. I always found it ironic that so many products labelled as “sports nutrition” are not very nutritious! “Food for Sport” is all about enjoyable, real, and unprocessed food that work for athletes. It is fantastic to have local distribution partners like Spud, because we can get away with a much shorter shelf life, comparative to multinational companies making products in the same category. At the end of the day, Prima is about providing people with food that will make their athletic lifestyles even more enjoyable and fulfilling.