Manhattan-based company wins two more awards. Meanwhile, its CEO, a food engineer, develops a disease-fighting diet.

Last month Dr. Asli Samanci, CEO of Manhattan-based Bee&You, won a silver-level award for Databird Business Journal’s Top Small Business Female Executive of the Year for 2019. It was the second recent landmark recognition for Bee&You, which also made the first-ever FoodTech 500 List in February.

Bee&You makes all-natural and biologically active bee products while promoting sustainable beekeeping. Its team of food scientists, researchers and beekeepers marry science with nature to create supplements, food and skincare products buzzing with health benefits. 

Using proprietary technology, they extract all biologically active compounds from propolis, raw honey and royal jelly in their purest forms, providing consumers with raw, unfiltered and unadulterated products. The body is able to process these “clean” products more easily, and the benefits are delivered more effectively.

Propolis can be used to support cold and flu prevention, immune defense, antioxidant protection, digestive health and healing, and healthy aging.

More than 30 Awards

As a Silver Databird winner, Samanci was recognized for outstanding leadership and significant contributions in her career. The criteria for consideration were tangible results and goals achieved. 

“Bee&You’s employees are 70 percent female,” Samanci says. “We are a company that believes in women’s empowerment. We have experienced and observed that all our female workers are hardworking, conscientious and detail-oriented. They are the strongest supporters of science and nature. Therefore we were happy to be selected for this prestigious, women-empowering award.” 

Samanci, a food engineer, helped found Bee&You in 2013. The company has won more than 30 awards in the past six years with its innovative, natural and healthy line of bee products. 

In February Bee&You was named to the FoodTech 500, a list of companies operating at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability. 

The Bee&You business model promotes sustainability and fair economic practices through its unique “Contract-Based Beekeeping Model,” which protects bees and beekeepers’ rights and safety. Bee&You has also displayed the early profitability typical of FoodTech500 companies, which represent the startup and scale-up stories shaping the future of food.

Bee&You has quickly grown into a global business, selling in 3,500 retail outlets in the United States and exporting to South Korea, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, Qatar, Dubai, and Cyprus.

COVID-Fighting Foods

Now Samanci is hoping to make a global impact in a different way: by identifying foods that can help the body fight infection and speed recovery from novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. 

Among the foods that boost immunity, she says, are antioxidant-rich foods like onions, garlic, apple cider vinegar, ginger, ginseng, turmeric, cinnamon, royal jelly, and Anatolian propolis, along with dishes like yogurt and kefir, which contain beneficial microorganisms. 

“I recommend consuming a mixture of one tablespoon raw honey, one tablespoon apple vinegar, 10 drops of Anatolian propolis, and a pinch each of ginger, turmeric and cinnamon twice every day,” she says. “I believe it would help to strengthen your immune system by making you more resistant to viral infections.”

For more information, visit BeeAndYou.com.