When I stepped away from Buduaar, the media company I had spent 15 years building, I made a conscious decision to do nothing for a while.

In 2021, “doing nothing” meant, among other things, scrolling through social media — and eventually, of course, posting.

That is how Fuudish was born: a platform created to help people better understand what goes into the food we eat every day and make more informed choices in supermarkets. I chose to focus specifically on supermarket food because most food-related platforms centred on cooking, while people had less and less time — and often less interest — in spending hours in the kitchen.

I began comparing products and their ingredients, looking for the best-formulated options in each category, whether bread, oat milk, potato chips or cheese. I also drew attention to additives and contaminants, and to the ways our everyday food choices can affect our health.

The approach was new in Estonia, and Fuudish quickly grew into a large community. I became known as the “food police” and a regular guest on television and radio.

But the deeper I went, the more complicated the picture became.

I founded MTÜ Toiduvalvurid (Food Watchers), Estonia’s first consumer watchdog NGO dedicated specifically to food. With the support of our community, we began commissioning independent laboratory tests on food sold in supermarkets. Food scientists, technologists and nutrition professionals joined us as advisers, helping me understand not only individual ingredients but also the wider connections between food, human health and the environment.

Five years of closely following the food industry and thousands of conversations with consumers led me to a simple conclusion: I wanted to do more than point out problems. I wanted to make a real difference where everyday food choices are made — on supermarket shelves.

Conversations with the right people, support from an EIS development voucher and hundreds of hours of preparation have brought me to where I am today. Something new will soon be arriving on the market — the kind of snack I would put in my children’s school bags for a long day and reach for myself when life gets busy.

Galgo Taro is my next chapter: a snack brand built on everything I have learned about food, responsibility, entrepreneurship, the environment and the everyday choices that shape our lives.

Galgo Taro products are not handmade snacks. They will be produced at scale, making them more affordable and allowing the brand to grow beyond national borders. The quality of food is not determined simply by whether it is made in a factory or a home kitchen. What matters is how it is made and what goes into it. Our aim is to create a delicious and nourishing snack with a simple, carefully considered formulation.

I do not believe the world needs just another product. If we bring something new into it, there should be a clear reason for it to exist. Success should not rely on clever marketing alone — the product itself must be genuinely good and offer meaningful added value to both people and the environment.

Keeping this standard in mind has meant that bringing these products to market has taken a little longer than originally planned. But now we can finally begin to lift the curtain: the key agreements are in place, and Galgo Taro is getting ready to launch.

My ambition goes beyond selling snacks. I want to build a brand and a community that mean something to people who share our values — people who care not only about their own wellbeing, but also about other people, animals and the planet.

That is why Galgo Taro is more than a name or a new snack brand. It opens the door to a world of people and stories that deserve to be seen and heard.