I have met many people in the natural foods industry, but none quite like the eccentric young executive, Pete Maletto.
Pete is the all around authority in the dietary supplement, food and beverage industry with his consulting firm PTM Food Consulting and most admirably so. His humble, caring and polite nature is refreshing to see and his desire to succeed in the industry is even greater.
Pete’s detailed bio contains extensive work experience in the dietary supplement and food industry that started at the age of 15 years old. He started out stocking shelves at a local health food store in Little Silver, NJ and never looked back.
At that very young age Pete studied herbal and vitamin therapy intensely by reading various books at the store. Not long after, Pete knew every vitamin and herbal extract in existence and how it worked in the human body at the age of 18 years old.
Pete Maletto credited his motivation to initially get into alternative medicine from the death of his father. Pete’s dad passed away from cancer, because his general practitioner making the mistake of mixing two prescription medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol that were known to cause bladder cancer. It eventually spread to his liver where he died shortly thereafter.
It was this kind of thinking by the medical establishment that prompted him by the mid 90’s to become a successful nutritionist initially for a short time at the infamous Atkins Center in NYC. Pete said, “I absolutely adored Dr Atkins, he was really responsible for saving my life as a teenager because of an undiagnosed hypoglycemic condition that induced panic attacks. When I read his 70’s book Super Energy Diet (Atkins first low carb book) suddenly everything went away and I was healed, just by reducing carbs and sugars in my diet. Then one day I’m actually working for him at his clinic, it was really great to be there with him.”
But that didn’t last said Maletto “I’m not really a new yorker and I didn’t fit in well there at all, the quality of life for me and the NJ/NY transit grind was very horrible and after 3 months I was done with it.”
Pete then worked for two years at an alternative medicine clinic in Marlboro, NJ. with a medical doctor. A few short years later he became the VP of Product Development at a life extension company called Life Services Supplements.
Pete developed over 300 dietary supplements for the company within a span of 3 years, all related to his experiences with testing and his extensive clinical research he performed for many years. But as a private label and mail order business, things were not moving quickly enough in the company and Pete turned to his entrepreneurial side to make the company profitable.
Dr. Atkins impact left quite an impression on Pete Maletto and low carb had been a big part of Pete’s lifestyle for many years. He decided to start making low carb food for himself at his lab in Life Services while the company VP and CEO took notice and decided to market his formulations.
Pete started making low carb foods, in fact he went down a road no one said he could by becoming the first individual to make low carb bread, pasta and cereals. "The best part was having a background in biology and food science helped because I knew how certain ingredients and macronutrient combinations worked best for weight loss.” said Maletto
After just 5 years Pete Maletto created over 200 low carb foods by himself at Life Services / Keto Foods and the business was running at over 25 million a year. Pete explained “After we became so successful, so fast, the money had gone to the company CEO’s head and he lost all aspects of reality. It was like watching your dad become a heroin addict and do anything he could to get the next fix. The company CEO became motivated by greed and stepped on anyone he could to get further in the business, including members of his own team. It was a shame to see someone I was so close with decline as a human being like that. It was so tough to witness I left shortly after and 6 months later they were out of business.”
As tough as it was to walk away from a business he spent 8 years nursing to profitability, Pete then moved on to start his own dietary supplement company DynaPure Nutrition with Keto foods former VP and it has been successful since its inception. DynaPure Nutrition is the only company that carries low carb shakes like Keto once had and also has the dietary supplements WARP 9, which have been touted as the best natural appetite suppressants in the industry. And while DynaPure was continuing to grow Pete was doing consulting work for various food and beverage companies to continue his creativity in the food and beverage industry.
Over a year ago Pete became the Chief Science Officer for Mind Sports Nutrition, an innovative dietary supplement company that marketed Pete’s formulation Mind Drive, a amazing product that addresses central nervous system fatigue/stress syndromes by nutritionally replacing the neurochemicals our brain and body uses to function at its best. Many professional athletes and consumers are using Mind Drive for endurance, focus, memory, concentration and having great success with it.
As time has passed, Pete's consulting firm, PTM Food Consulting has grown by leaps and bounds. Just this past year he has created over 100 food and beverage projects and is looking at 2007 to reach nearly 150 projects. He has already signed deals with 3 major food companies in the US.
When I asked Pete what has made him so successful he just explained that he gives his customers top notch service, and combines that with innovation that no other company can deliver. In fact most of Pete's customers are the first to market with new ingredients and technologies and it has given them an advantage in marketing their products. His days consist of researching food and beverage technologies used in Europe and other countries that are never even thought of here. This individualized service and innovation turned into a word of mouth that put him on top in the industry and repeat business with every single customer. He absolutely lives for his customers success with their product in the marketplace.
But as his food consultant business continues to grow, he has also been working on another project of his own the past two years. This one being a natural sweetener that has never been accomplished in the food industry.
The all natural sweetener Sweet Sense, contains an innovative natural flavor system from fruit developed by Maletto that targets and stimulates the sweet tastebud receptors, which magnifies the intensity of the other ingredients in the formula. The result is a all natural sweetener that is four times sweeter than sugar, which is not only an industry first, but a product that could get the food company off the ground quickly.
“Reducing sugars is a primary concern for consumers right now with diabetes at an all time high and obesity skyrocketing. Sweet Sense could fill a need for those that want to reduce sugar, but are wary of artificial sweeteners.” said Maletto
“I have business partners in Sugar Sense who are dedicated in making this a reality and once we get some brand awareness and traction, we’re off to the races in creating low carb/reduced carb foods for diabetics and weight loss.” said Maletto
So does the pressure of being involved with four businesses get to him? “The sacrifices have been incredible and I never would be able to do it without a great supporting cast of family, friends and business partners. Of course, you go through many stresses when you spread yourself thin like this, but I still enjoy helping my customers succeed and watching my other projects on the side take off.” said Maletto
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