Zoa Culture: Alive Food for Alive Health
For Letizia Guarise, the founder of Zoa Culture, food has always been a cornerstone of wellbeing. Her deep curiosity about the connection between nutrition and inner happiness led her to explore global food systems as well as different cultures around nutrition and health, progressively shifting her diet to plant-based eating. But this shift wasn’t without its challenges. From poor nutrient absorption to the overwhelming prevalence of processed, low-quality alternatives, Letizia faced the frustrations many experience when trying to eat consciously. These challenges, however, didn’t deter her. They inspired her to dig deeper into the science of nutrition, ultimately leading her to the transformative art and science of fermentation.
Discovering the Power of Fermentation
Studying plant-based protein transitions introduced Letizia to fermentation, a method she describes as the magic wand for improving food nutrients. It was a true aha moment: it’s of critical importance for plant-based food improvement because it greatly eliminates their natural abundance of anti-nutrients (compounds that hinder nutrients absorption), elevating plant-based ingredients to a complete other level of nutrition, besides improving their digestibility, natural lifespam and unlocking an entirely new spectrum of zesty, umami flavours.
“I was so enthusiastic about it, it’s incredible the extent to which such a natural transformation can work so synergistically and systemically in all directions” Letizia recalls. However, she soon encountered barriers. Fermenting complex, protein-rich foods required specialised knowledge, unique bacterial cultures, and often expensive equipment. These processes weren’t just time-consuming—they were unsustainable for everyday life.
Developing Zoa Culture
Determined to simplify fermentation and make it more accessible for practical use, Letizia began researching bacterial strains that naturally perform nutrient transformation. Working with microbiology labs, she developed a powdered bacterial culture— Zoa Culture—designed to make fermentation possible on all ingredients, without the need for incubation machinery nor special equipment, thus practical, efficient and convenient. “Just like an additional ingredient to our daily food”.
This wasn’t just about creating a product. Letizia envisioned Zoa Culture as a movement, blending the timeless wisdom of nature with modern scientific breakthroughs to help people reconnect with their food and health in a powerful restoring way. Zoa Culture offers more than just a tool for fermentation; it embodies a philosophy. By empowering people to easily create nutrient-dense, long-lasting, probiotic-rich foods, it brings back to life our daily food, transforming it into an “alive” source of vitality.
“Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food”. Letizia invites us to follow the teachings of the father of Medicine, Hippocrates.
Addressing the Gaps in our Food System
Letizia’s work tackles systemic issues in the industrialised food system. Today, food is most often stripped of its natural vitality through processes like indiscriminate pasteurisation and heavy processing. This creates dependency on stimulants and artificial supplements to keep us going, as well as on artificial preservatives, and resource-intensive refrigeration to keep the food “fresh”, with no real cure for the rising of food waste and loss, and missed opportunities for health.
“This system deprives food of its natural vitality and then tries to reclaim it artificially,” Letizia explains. “It’s unsustainable, inefficient, and deeply disconnected from the ecosystems we rely on.
Fermentation, on the other hand, is a natural process that preserves food, enriches its nutrient profile-especially urgent for a realistic plant-based shift, and reduces the need for artificial interventions. It’s not utopian to start integrating it more systemically in our economy and daily life.
I believe we need new narratives around what healthy food and healthy food systems are, and real tools to actively take agency in our daily food practises”.
The Vision Behind Zoa Culture
With Zoa Culture, Letizia aims to ignite a fermentation revolution. By making fermentation an easily accessible practise to daily integrate in our life, she desires to bridge the gap between timeless nature wisdom and modern innovation, by empowering people to actively engage in their daily food transformation. Creating systemic change across individuals, communities, and ecosystems:
- Healthier People: Nutrient-rich, probiotic foods to enhance wellbeing and daily vitality.
- Healthier Planet: Reduced food waste and environmental impact, while supporting cultural biodiversity on a micro and macro-level
- Healthier Communities: Empowering individuals with the tools and knowledge to reclaim control over their health and food practices.
Fermentation, as Letizia sees it, is not just a method—it’s an act of empowerment and regeneration. „To ferment our food means to actively contribute to a more regenerative and resilient future,” she says.
”To ferment our food means to actively contribute to a more regenerative and resilient future.”
How does it work?
Zoa Culture powder is applied to food in the same way one would use any other powdered ingredient. After application, the food is left to rest for at least 24 hours in a glass jar at ambient temperature. During this time, fermentation occurs, breaking down nutrients to make them easier to digest and absorb, eliminating anti-nutrients, and producing beneficial enzymes and vitamins. The process also enriches the food with a significant probiotic content, which naturally preserves the fermented food for several months.
From Soil to Soul
At its core, Zoa Culture is about bringing vitality back to every part of life—from soil to soul. Based in Basel, Letizia is seeking collaborators, investors, and advocates to scale Zoa Culture’s impact. She believes that by embracing fermentation in our daily life, we can start bringing vitality back to our plates, our planet and our lives. Because eating more alive means living more alive.
