Independent Brands I Love: My Favorite Food & Supplement Companies

August 16, 2026

Independent Brands I Love

As a small-business owner, supporting other independent businesses* is important to me. I love knowing that many of the brands I buy are still connected to the founders, families, employees, or farmers who built them.

Of course, the products still have to be good. With food, I look for organic, thoughtfully sourced ingredients and simple ingredient lists. With supplements, I care about the formulation, manufacturing standards, and quality testing.

These are some of the brands I personally buy, trust, and come back to again and again.

 

*Some brands listed may have outside or private-equity investment while retaining founder, family, or employee involvement. “Independent” is not intended as a strict ownership designation.

Supplements

Brand
Why I Like Them
Designs for Health
Founder-led and majority family-owned, with outside investment. Known for rigorous quality-control and testing standards and one of my go-to professional supplement brands.
Seeking Health
Founded by Dr. Ben Lynch, with thoughtfully formulated products and a strong emphasis on quality and testing.
BodyBio
A third-generation family business that manufactures in Millville, New Jersey and emphasizes third-party testing.

Food Favorites

What I’m Buying
Brands I Like
Olive Oil
An Absolute Favorite
Georgetown Olive Oil Co. — I love their fresh extra-virgin olive oils and the amount of information they provide, including harvest and polyphenol data on select oils.
Pasta & Italian Staples
Jovial  •  Bionaturae — Family-owned brands with a strong focus on organic ingredients and traditional foods.
Oats, Granola & Cereal
One Degree Organic Foods — Organic, family-created, and a standout for ingredient and farm transparency.
Bread & Sprouted Grains
Food for Life / Ezekiel 4:9 — A family business known for certified-organic sprouted-grain products.
Beans & Pantry Staples
Eden Foods — A longtime favorite for organic beans, grains, and simple pantry staples.
Nut & Seed Butters
Once Again — A 100% employee-owned company with excellent organic nut and seed butter options.
Dairy & Eggs
Organic Valley — A cooperative owned by organic family farmers. I love knowing the farmers producing the food are also the owners of the company.

Supporting Local

Andrew and I have been buying food from Harmony Acres for years. Supporting local farms is another piece of this for us. We love knowing where our food is coming from and having the opportunity to support the people producing it.

Resources I Use

For organic foods, I like the Cornucopia Institute’s Who Owns Organic? tool. It’s a great way to see who is actually behind many of the organic brands on grocery store shelves. Cornucopia also has Organic Scorecards that take a deeper look at certain food categories.

I keep the Cornucopia Institute website saved to my iPhone home screen so it’s easy to pull up when I’m shopping.

For supplements, I use SuppCo to research and compare products. Its TrustScore looks at manufacturing standards, certifications, testing, and formulation. I pay particular attention to products marked TESTED by SuppCo, which have undergone independent laboratory testing for identity and potency.

ConsumerLab is another resource I use for independent testing and reviews of supplements and certain foods.

These resources don’t tell the whole story, and a company not being listed doesn’t necessarily mean there is a problem with its products. They’re simply additional tools I use when I’m researching what I buy and recommend.

I’ll keep adding to this list as I find products I truly love from companies I feel good about supporting.

-Written by Stacy Abramson, MSW, CFNC

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