Darren Litt and Adam Gillman on sweet chewables without added sugar

If I would not give this to my kids, why would anyone else. That plain remark from two fathers sits at the center of Hiya, and it explains why sweetness had to come from fruit rather than sugar.

A pot on a stove is where many plant remedies begin, as a dried leaf or root simmered for a child with a cold. In Los Angeles, the starting point looked different. It was a mail order bottle of childrens gummy vitamins that had fused together, with loose crystals gathered at the base. Darren Litt and Adam Gillman, former colleagues and parents of small children, had bought the product after a pediatrician suggested it.

They tasted the problem before they measured it. The chew behaved like candy. That observation led to three years of work in Los Angeles with pediatricians, nutrition specialists, researchers and parents, and to a launch on March 2, 2020. The first direct to consumer chewable carried 15 essential vitamins and minerals with a blend of 12 fruits and vegetables, sweetened with monk fruit. Hiya now reports more than one million subscription parents plus a range that includes probiotic, greens, iron and more. Root to Bottle reads this as a plant story as much as a parenting story, a shift from glucose syrup and gelatin to dried produce, pressed powder and a fruit based sweetener, checked lot by lot.

Looking at that melted Amazon bottle with sugar settled at the bottom, which you once likened to a serving of chocolate cake, what did you learn about the base of most kids vitamins?

That bottle showed us we had been searching in the wrong place. We were two fathers trying to do the right thing. We asked the pediatrician, we ordered what was advised, and what arrived looked like candy that had melted and set again. It was sticky. It left sugar behind on the paper. Our kids enjoyed the taste for a reason we did not love.

Simply put, we brought a Silicon Valley habit of close reading to childrens health. We read the Supplement Facts panel word by word. We read the other ingredients line just as closely. We learned the average childrens supplement holds two teaspoons of sugar given to kids daily. Sugar addiction is an epidemic, and yet there it was in a product made for daily use. Our imperative is to offer a childrens vitamin that does what its label says, without needless sugar and gummy junk. If kids ate steamed kale daily, they might not need a multivitamin. Most do not. So the daily form mattered, yet the starting material had to change.

Your formula lists 15 essential vitamins and minerals with 12 fruits and vegetables in a chew sweetened with monk fruit. How does dried produce turn into a pressed tablet with no gummy base, and what part do drying and extraction play?

The chain begins as produce and ends as a pressed chewable. Between lies drying, milling, blending and pressing. Fruits and vegetables are dried to remove water, then milled to powder so a small fill weight can hold them. Vitamins and minerals come in as separate inputs with separate lots. All meet in a blender, then move to a press that shapes the chewable.

Extract ratio matters here. It notes how much raw plant is needed to yield one part of extract. Standardised means one marker compound is kept at a set level from lot to lot. Those two terms show why two powders with the same name can act differently. We set the formula, the supplier sends the lot paperwork, and the finished chewable must hold together without the gummy system. That took time. Monk fruit gives sweetness without added sugar, and the flavors found in candy are absent from this tablet. The result is a chewable made in the USA that ships in a refillable glass bottle with monthly refill pouches, so the tablet had to survive pouch, mail and kitchen counter.

Three years of work with pediatricians, nutritionists, researchers and parents preceded the March 2, 2020 debut. Which farms or suppliers provided those early plant lots, and what passed or failed at intake?

We started with the list of refusals. No sugar, no gummy junk, only what kids truly need. That sounds simple. In sourcing it is not. A gummy needs glucose syrup, gelatin or pectin, color and coating to stay together. Remove those and you must rebuild chew, taste and stability from something else.

We worked with pediatricians on levels, with nutritionists on forms, with scientists on stability, and with parents on whether a child would truly chew it. The brief called for 15 essential vitamins and minerals plus 12 fruits and vegetables, sweetened with monk fruit. Lots that needed added sugar for taste were removed. Lots with synthetic dyes for color were removed. Fillers that added weight with no purpose were removed. We kept lots where the certificate proved identity and the taste came from real food and monk fruit. We see our product not only as the vitamin you put in your mouth, but an experience that kids love. Kids do not wake up eager about vitamins as such. The chew had to deserve its spot on our counter.

When a parent holds the multivitamin lot, with its made in the USA mark and third party testing claim, what is checked, by which kind of lab, and what appears on the certificate of analysis?

We grew very fast, likely as fast as any direct to consumer company out there, but we refused to compromise on safety, quality and testing. That sentence shaped every scale decision. Third party tested means a lab apart from maker and brand checks the product against a specification.

For a chewable multivitamin, a certificate of analysis commonly shows identity of inputs, strength of key vitamins and minerals against label claim, and limits for contaminants such as heavy metals and microbes. Heavy metals means lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury measured in parts per million or parts per billion versus a limit. Microbial testing looks for indicator organisms and pathogens. The certificate belongs to one specific lot and batch. Batch means what was made together. Lot means how it is tracked. Parents can use the Supplement Facts panel for levels and the other ingredients line for excipients. The seal or wording printed on the label ought to identify the tester or program behind it. We keep that paperwork because trust without a document is only a claim.

Monk fruit is named as the sweetener and the label states zero added sugar. What document supports that statement, and where does the sweetener and flavor chain still lack clarity?

What proves it is the formula record with the finished label. The Supplement Facts panel shows total sugars and added sugars on separate lines. The other ingredients line should name the sweetener and flavor system. If monk fruit extract is the sweetener, it appears there. If added sugar were present, it would appear in both places.

What remains hard across the industry is flavor. Natural flavor can hide a complex blend from multiple suppliers. A buyer sees two words. The maker holds the full breakdown as confidential. That is a cloudy step we keep watching. We can name what we will not accept. We refuse added sugar. We refuse gummy additives. We refuse artificial dyes. We refuse fillers. To honor what is traceable, we point to the panel and the lot test. To name what is not yet fully open, we point to flavor houses where full disclosure would need supplier permission. What it would take to prove it is simple. Flavor parts itemized by lot, shared under the same certificate as potency and contaminants.

Our imperative is to provide a childrens vitamin that does what it is marketed to do

Darren Litt and Adam Gillman

The greens powder blends 55 whole food sourced ingredients with zero sugar and a chocolate flavor children accept. How do you preserve origin and lot identity across that many dried plants?

Fifty five separate inputs translate into fifty five separate lots. Each whole food ingredient arrives with its origin, harvest date and lot number. Greens, fruits, vegetables and other plant powders are dried and milled before reaching the blender. The blender record is where traceability either holds or fails.

We hold it by keeping each input lot apart until blending, then linking every input lot to one finished batch number. The finished canister carries that batch number. The certificate for the batch lists results for the blend. Its cocoa taste with no sugar relies on cocoa with monk fruit and flavor, all listed in the other ingredients line. How it is used is simple by design. Stir the powder into milk or a milk alternative. Behind that sentence lies a blend sheet that notes how many grams of each lot went into the tank. When a parent asks where exactly does this come from, the honest answer for a 55 part blend is a list, not one farm. We keep that list by batch.

The probiotic for children lists 10 billion live cultures chosen for childhood needs. How is a living strain followed from fermentation vessel to pressed chew, and what does end of shelf life testing show?

A probiotic starts life in a fermentation tank. That is a clean vessel where a single bacterial strain is fed and grown under steady temperature and pH. The culture is gathered, concentrated, dried or stabilized, then blended to a target count measured in colony forming units. Colony forming units, shown as CFU, approximate living cells capable of growth in test conditions.

From there the chain concerns survival. Heat, moisture and time reduce live count. Thus the lot file lists strain identity, input CFU per gram, blend weight, plus finished CFU at release. A careful label also reflects CFU through end of shelf life, not only on the day it was made. Testing at release and at stability points shows if the count held. Storage directions on the label form part of that proof. For parents studying the panel, the strain names and the CFU count go together. One without the other leaves the source unclear. The chewable form adds a further check, since pressing force and moisture must stay within limits that keep the count where the label states.

You ship in a refillable glass bottle with monthly pouches and avoid plastic bottles. What does glass alter for fill weight, forming the tablet, and keeping potency steady?

Glass alters moisture and light exposure. A refillable glass bottle with a snug closure shields chewables from kitchen humidity better than a thin pouch left open. Monthly refill pouches need less material per serving than a fresh bottle each month, yet the pouch film still has to stop moisture while in the mail.

Fill weight means the mass held in each chewable or scoop. Encapsulation here means shaping and guarding that mass, whether as a pressed tablet or a powder in a pouch. Stability testing checks potency, moisture, texture and taste over time in the true package. A tablet that stays fine in glass can soften in a pouch if the film breathes. A powder that pours well on day one can cake once moisture enters. So the package belongs to the formula. We chose glass for the counter and pouches for refills because parents reuse the bottle and get a fresh lot each month. The lot printed on the pouch ought to agree with the certificate issued for that month.

USANA took a controlling stake in 2024 at an implied 260 million dollar valuation, with forecasts above 100 million dollars in net sales and above one million subscription parents. How has that volume altered sampling, testing, and the ability to name growers?

Scale changes sampling first. Additional lots each month bring additional certificates, additional retain samples and additional stability pulls. Retain samples are sealed units kept from each batch so the maker can test again if a question arises later. At our volume, every batch is checked against specification before release. That discipline made growth possible.

Your instincts aid you in noticing what others missed and in solving problems, while the data keeps you honest. But do not lean too hard on either. That guides how we handle sourcing. Instinct said parents would pay a premium for trust rather than seek the lowest price. Data holds that honest by means of test pass rates, complaint rates and stability results. I preferred to earn less rather than stay capped at what I can do working for someone else. Independence still shapes choices, even within a larger structure. What we may credit by grower is clearest where the chain stays short. Where the chain passes through brokers or flavor houses, we mark the step as not yet fully traceable and note what paper would close the gap.

Closing note from the desk

What remains after the talk is a short refusal list kept intact while orders climbed. No added sugar. No gummy base. No synthetic color. No inert fillers. No plastic vessel on the kitchen shelf. The founders address other parents directly, and the lasting detail is record keeping instead of promotion. Lot codes, blend logs, retained units, stability checks.

Hiya set out to rethink the daily chew for children as full body nourishment a child will accept. The company reports what the panel carries and leaves added health promises off the label. Flavor blends and large multi origin mixes stay partly unclear. The desk acknowledges the paper trail that exists and names the records that would add clarity.

Product spotlight

Kids Daily Multivitamin, 30 dollars for a one month supply for one child, taken as one daily chewable. It holds 15 essential vitamins and minerals with a blend of 12 fruits and vegetables, sweetened with monk fruit and made with zero added sugar. Take through the monthly plan with refillable glass bottle and refill pouches.

Kids Daily Probiotic, 30 dollars for a one month supply for one child, taken as one daily chewable. It carries 10 billion live cultures from strains picked for childhood needs, with strain names and levels shown on the Supplement Facts panel. Take each day for routine gut support as the label directs, kept as instructed to support live count.