Noshi For Kids: Who Said Frosting Couldn’t Be Healthy? 

DeliveryRank chats with Tomo Delaney, the founder of Noshi, a brand dedicated to empowering children at mealtime by offering creative, fun, and nutritious products. His journey began as a parent grappling with picky eating and the realization that mealtime resistance often stems from a lack of control rather than food preferences. Inspired by the need to give children more agency, Delaney created Food Paint—an innovative product designed as a set of organic fruit and vegetable purées in tubes, allowing kids to interact with their food in a playful, creative way. Over time, Noshi evolved to introduce healthier, more appealing alternatives like vitamin-enriched frosting, combining fun and nutrition while appealing to both children and parents.

Can you describe how your product design and branding are intended to give children more agency during mealtimes? What kind of responses have you received from parents and kids about this?

Both of my children were picky eaters, and I was determined not to fall into the all-too-familiar pattern of having three daily arguments about food. So, I sat down one day and began researching the potential causes of picky eating. What I discovered, surprisingly quickly, was that the issue isn’t fundamentally about vegetables or broccoli — or even about food at all, really. It’s about control.

Children, I realized, often experience mealtimes as a moment where all control is taken from them. They might be playing outside, watching a cartoon, or deeply engaged in something they enjoy, only to be abruptly pulled away and told to sit down and eat. Even if you offer their absolute favorite meal, if it’s imposed on them at the wrong time, you’re still likely to face resistance—not because they’re not hungry or don’t like the food, but because they instinctively understand that by saying “no,” they can assert some control in a world where they often have very little.

Taking all of this on board, I thought : surely there must be products on the market designed to give children more autonomy at mealtimes. That seemed like the obvious solution—offering kids a sense of agency. I began exploring every grocery store I could find in downtown Manhattan, convinced I’d come across something. But to my astonishment, I didn’t find a single product tailored specifically for children to use themselves. And now, more than a decade later, that still remains the case.

I began imagining what that kind of product might look like. A friend then suggested an idea that became the seed for Food Paint. I was immediately inspired. Our vision was to create a set of organic fruit and vegetable purées in tubes, resembling a paint set. We designed it to be visually appealing to children, to make them feel that this was their product—something they could enjoy, control, and interact with.

However, what we didn’t have at the time was the industry experience—or the budget—to properly test our messaging. While kids absolutely loved the product and couldn’t wait to use it (because it made them feel in control – duh!), parents often didn’t understand its value or purpose. Why should they spend $5 or $6 on something unfamiliar, even though almost every parent on the planet struggles with picky eating?

Fast forward to this year, we’re relaunching the concept—but with a major evolution. I’ve become more pragmatic. When I first launched Food Paint, I was idealistic: it had to be organic, super healthy, low in sugar. All of that is wonderful in theory, but I’ve learned that building a sustainable business requires balancing ideals with practical appeal.

The new version is essentially a healthy frosting—yes, frosting, but with added vitamins, nutrients, natural colors, and natural flavors. I resisted calling it “frosting” at first, but I’ve come to realize that this language is what bridges the gap with parents. It offers familiarity and clarity. Everyone understands what frosting is—but no one has innovated in that category for over a century. We saw an opportunity to reinvent it, to make it better.

So that’s where we are now. We’ve reimagined the product to appeal to both parents and children—preserving the fun, creativity, and empowerment elements for kids while delivering the familiarity and clarity parents need. I genuinely believe we’re onto something meaningful this time. Food Paint was always seen as a big idea—by retailers, by investors, even by people like Mark Cuban. We just hadn’t quite figured out how to bring it to life in a way that worked for everyone. Now, I believe we finally have.

What was the original inspiration behind creating an edible food paint, and what were some of the challenges in making sure the product met organic, vegan, kosher, and gluten-free standards?

As a stay-at-home parent, I often found myself feeling quite lonely. My wife was at work, the kids were at school, and even when they were home, I missed having adult company and conversation. To combat the isolation, I began volunteering for a program called Friendly Visiting for the elderly in New York City. I was paired with a wonderful couple on the Upper West Side, and every Friday morning, I’d visit them.

Our weekly meetings became a kind of informal therapy session. The three of us would sit together and talk about our lives—the ups, the downs, the ordinary details of the past week. My stories inevitably revolved around parenting: how exhausting it could be and, quite often, how frustrating it was dealing with my children’s picky eating habits. I was also at a professional crossroads, looking for a new career path. I knew I didn’t want to return to the fashion industry, but I wasn’t sure what was next.

Then, one evening, I received an email from Pegi—half of the couple I visited. She wrote, "I have a business proposition for you." Intrigued, I showed up the next morning as usual, and she greeted me with a single phrase: "Edible paint."

At first, I laughed. It sounded absurd. But then I paused and said, “Actually… that’s interesting.” I remember asking aloud, “What would that even be?” And almost instinctively, we began mapping it out together. If the product was a rainbow of colors, then what would each color taste like? We quickly landed on red for strawberry, orange for carrot, yellow for peach or mango, green for pea, blue for blueberry. Within five minutes, we had essentially outlined the core concept of the product.

What inspired me so deeply was how clear and imaginative the idea was—and how it managed to combine creativity with purpose. Pegi had come up with it after watching an episode of Shark Tank, where two women pitched neon-colored, edible cookie dough. She was appalled by how unhealthy it was—packed with sugar, artificial colors, and preservatives—and she thought, There must be a better version of this. Something wholesome that a parent would be proud to give their child.

So I went home and sat at my computer, determined to figure out how to make it happen. I didn’t even know what search terms to use: How to create a food product for kids? How to launch a healthy snack brand? It took me months to find anyone in the industry who could help me, but I never lost faith in the idea.

And I still haven’t—more than a decade later.

I’ve always been someone who regularly comes up with wild ideas, and over time I’ve learned not to chase all of them. But this one was different. From the moment Pegi explained it, I knew it was something special. And while the first version we launched didn’t quite hit the mark—largely because, being organic, the colors weren’t as vibrant as people expected—I always believed we were onto something big.

When a product is called food paint, the customer naturally expects bold, playful colors. The organic formulation prevented us from delivering that initial visual punch, which was disappointing, despite the strength of the concept. But now, we’ve reimagined it in a way that delivers exactly what people hoped to find in the first place.

We’ve turned food paint into a better-for-you frosting— fun, more colorful, and now frosting. But frosting enhanced with vitamins, natural flavors, and cleaner ingredients. It’s everything the original concept wanted to be, but this time, we’ve got the execution to match.

How did your partnership with KeHE Distributors come about, and what steps have you taken to help your products stand out in a market filled with well-known household brands?

When I first encountered distribution in the grocery industry, I had no idea of its significance. Whether in the U.S., the UK, or elsewhere, I truly didn’t grasp how important – vital - it was (or how costly it could be). 

When I started with Food Paint, I simply pushed ahead, undeterred by the complexities I didn’t yet understand. In hindsight, I see that my naivety worked to my advantage. If I had known the full scope of the challenges ahead, I likely would have shelved the idea like I had with many others in the past. But no one had laid out those obstacles for me, so I just kept moving forward, refusing to stop, and that perseverance ultimately paid off.

Pegi introduced the idea to me in early 2015. By the end of that year, we had partnered with a food scientist, and by late 2016, we had product samples ready to present to potential customers. It was then that my wife, who had a university friend working in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, provided an invaluable connection. This friend had a strong network in the grocery industry and, after seeing the potential of our product, offered to show it to Larry Hanson, the head of national sales at Albertsons, one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S.

When our friend showed Larry the product, Larry immediately recognized its potential and introduced me to his 31 regional sales managers. Then, the real challenge began: Larry told me that I needed to contact each of the managers individually and explain the product. It was a massively intimidating task, but I did it, and five of them agreed to carry Food Paint. The next hurdle was distribution, which was something I had naively never even considered. We were introduced to KeHE, a major distribution company, and this was the first time I truly understood how essential distribution is in getting a product onto store shelves. It took about three months to get hooked into the KeHE system, and it was a learning curve, but KeHE was instrumental in helping us deliver our product across the country.

Working with KeHE was absolutely vital to our success. They helped us reach stores across the nation. It was a costly process, but it worked. When you have stores already committed to carrying your product, partnering with a good distribution company like KeHE becomes a necessity. The reverse, where a distributor approaches you with promises of store placement, is NOT the way to go. We were fortunate that stores came to us first, and then KeHE facilitated the delivery.

Like every component of the food industry, the distribution process is costly, but it is a vital component. It’s one of those things that makes many suppliers wince when they see the bill, but it’s essential to getting your product to market. While “necessary evil” is often used to describe distributors, it’s too harsh a term : distribution is just another necessary part of the journey. And, ultimately, without it, we wouldn’t have been able to bring Food Paint to the shelves.

How did your experience being featured on Shark Tank and teaming up with Mark Cuban influence your business growth and visibility? Are there any key takeaways or data points that reflect the impact?

In early 2015—around February or March—Pegi introduced me to this idea that immediately captured my attention. We quickly realized that we would need funding to bring it to life though, so we launched a Kickstarter campaign in April of that year. Just ten days after it went live, I received an unexpected email from the producers of Shark Tank. They said they had just discovered our product, thought it was amazing, and wanted us on the show. However, they were nearing the end of the audition process, so time was of the essence. They asked if we could schedule a call for the following week. We said, “Absolutely. That sounds incredible.”

We had the call, and it became apparent very quickly that we were far too early in our journey. At that point, we didn’t even have a proper name for the product. “Food Paint” didn’t yet exist as a brand, the formulas weren’t finalized, and we hadn’t hired a food scientist. We had nothing but an idea. And yet, despite all that, they still saw something in it. That was a huge validation. Here were people whose opinions we respected, and they had immediately recognized the potential. That experience gave us just enough of a confidence boost to keep going—to keep raising the money we needed to move forward and bring the product to market.

Fast forward to 2022, by which time Food Paint had been on the market for five years. My wife had been struggling with long COVID for two years, and it had reached a point where we genuinely feared she might never work again. That terrified me. I realized that I needed to get serious about making the business profitable—fast. If her income was gone for good, it would be entirely on me to support our family.

One day, sitting at home and racking my brain for anything that might push the business forward, I remembered those old email contacts from Shark Tank. On a whim, I sent an email. I honestly didn’t expect a reply. It felt like buying a lottery ticket – “I’m not going to win, obviously!” But they responded—within 13 minutes. They said the product looked amazing and asked if I could jump on a call the next day. Of course, I said yes.

From there, every call pushed me further up the ladder—each conversation was with someone more senior than the last. Each call ended with, “We’ll be in touch in a couple of weeks,” and then they’d follow up just days later to schedule the next. I was being fast-tracked. By the end of May 2022, it was confirmed: I would be appearing on the show.

From that moment on, I was assigned two producers, Maggie and Kelly, who became my coaches. We met weekly on Zoom for one-hour sessions, and they guided me through every single element of my pitch—from the presentation and wardrobe to the exact words I would use. They were masters at what they did. Every part of my appearance and message was fine-tuned to perfection, and the care and expertise they brought to the process showed in every detail. Maggie and Kelly were also just lovely human beings, and I felt truly supported throughout.

I flew to Los Angeles on September 10, 2022, and taped the episode the following day. On stage, four of the Sharks turned me down. For a moment, I stood there thinking, This might be it— my whole life just flashed before my eyes. Then, Mark Cuban spoke up. He saw something in Food Paint, and I will be forever grateful to him for seeing it.

Mark is one of the kindest, smartest people I’ve ever met. He and his team have been phenomenal—supportive, insightful, generous. They’ve made some amazing introductions and opened doors I didn’t even know existed. It’s still surreal to say he’s invested in my company. I can’t praise them enough.

That one desperate email in April 2022 changed everything.

As an entrepreneur, you go through phases—sometimes you’re convinced this was the worst idea you’ve ever had. You feel overwhelmed, close to tears, wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. You wake up in the middle of the night panicked about the financial hole you’ve dug. But the only entrepreneurs who succeed are the ones who don’t quit. Even when it goes against your instincts. Even when logic tells you to walk away.

You just have to hold the line. Believe in yourself. Believe in the product. Trust that the breakthrough will come.

It’s not easy. Especially in the grocery industry—launching a new product is brutally difficult and wildly expensive. It’s a long, demanding process. But if you persevere, it can pay off.

Are there any plans to expand your flavor offerings or create new product lines? How do you approach innovation while staying true to your brand’s health and quality commitments?

Earlier this year, I had a conversation with an industry peer, and he asked me a simple but powerful question: "What does Noshi own that's of real value?" I immediately said, "Food Paint." He responded, "That's the right answer. Food paint is a multi-million-dollar idea. You should not give up on it. You need to figure out how to make it the best version of itself."

That conversation, combined with the guidance I had received after Mark Cuban came on board, led me to revisit an idea that had been suggested to me a while ago: the potential to reinvent Food Paint as frosting. The idea came from Bob Chimbel, a PR professional with experience in promoting kids' products, who pointed out that there had been no real innovation in the frosting market for over a century. Buttercream frosting was invented in 1917, and the market is dominated by just a few companies. These companies don’t need to innovate, but there’s a massive opportunity to disrupt the market with something new.

At first, I was defensive. Frosting, I thought, was just sugar in a tube, and our brand is organic. It didn’t feel like a natural fit at all. But the idea stuck with me…

That same evening, my Shark Tank episode aired again, as it does every few months, and as often happens when it pops up on tv, I received an email from the mom of an autistic child. She explained that her 19-year-old son goes through phases where he only eats food of a certain color, like red or green. During these phases, he buys multiple tubes of frosting in that color and eats them directly. She said, "If you can make frosting healthier, you would not only win over parents like me, but you would win over every parent in America."

That moment was a turning point. I left the coffee shop where I’d met her, called my food scientist Fred, and asked, "Can you make frosting healthier?" Fred, who is a genius, said, "Absolutely." He outlined how we could enrich frosting with vitamins and minerals like A, C, D, E, iron, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus. He also assured me that we could use natural colors and flavors, making the frosting not just healthy, but delicious.

With that conversation, I was inspired to move forward with this revamp. We’ll be launching new flavors, starting with strawberry, blueberry, lime, and mango, as they represent the primary colors red, blue, green, and yellow. But we don’t intend to stop there. We’ll roll out additional flavors as quickly as we can, including orange, raspberry, pineapple, coconut, and even flavors like Dulce de leche. Our goal is to create a full spectrum of flavors that appeal to a wide variety of tastes and demographics.

So, while we’re still calling it Food Paint, we’re effectively launching a new product: a healthier, more flavorful, and vibrant alternative to traditional frosting. This is just the beginning, and we have big plans for the future.

In a market where children's food is often criticized for being overly processed or high in sugar, how do you see Noshi fitting into larger industry trends toward clean labeling and health-conscious parenting?

It’s been a journey, and I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on where we started with Food Paint and where we’re going now with the new product. Obviously, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking (and talking) about how the version of Food Paint we're launching isn’t as healthy as we initially envisioned, but the frosting market is massive. In fact, 156 million Americans ate store-bought frosting last year, and the market in the USA alone is worth $4.5 billion annually. This is a product that has a huge audience, but the reality is that it’s not very healthy.

The frosting on the market today is produced by just three companies, and none of them have really made any moves to improve the health of their product. So, we saw an opportunity to disrupt that, not by going the traditional route of small organic frosting brands, but by introducing something entirely new—frosting that’s not only colorful and flavorful but also healthier.

One of the things I learned from developing the first version of Food Paint was that the cost of goods (COGs) was high, and the margins were low. As much as I have a passion for creating healthier products, there’s also a side of me that’s learned to be strategic and mindful of the business side of things. The goal is always to keep COGS down and margins high, so we can scale and reach more people.

But the key here is that we can make frosting healthier, and that’s why I’m moving forward with this plan. If Fred hadn’t told me that we could add vitamins and nutrients, and use natural colors and flavors, I wouldn’t have continued. That’s the game-changer for us. We’re not just making frosting that looks good, but we’re making it better for you than anything else on the market.

Parents - customers - will see that we’re offering a product that stands out : one that’s delicious and enriched with nutrients, and that’s what makes it a step forward in an industry that really hasn’t seen much innovation in a long time. If we can make a product that’s a little healthier, a little more nutritious, and still delicious and fun, then I’m proud of what we’re doing.

So, yes, we’re making the best product we can, and I’m excited about the direction we're heading. It’s a big leap from where we were, but I believe it’s a necessary one, and I’m confident that this new version of Food Paint is something we can all be proud of.

If you would like to find out more about Noshi, please visit https://noshiforkids.com/