Mimica - How Solveiga Pakštaitė is Redefining the Future of Food

Two years ago, when we first featured Solveiga Pakštaitė, founder of food-tech startup Mimica, her business was at a turning point. The science was promising, the mission was clear, and the vision was bold: to tackle avoidable food waste through a simple but revolutionary solution. At that stage, Mimica was still an early-stage venture full of potential.

Fast forward to today, and Mimica has grown into a company making tangible impact. From successful product launches to building its own UK-based factory, Mimica has moved from promise to proof. Along the way, Solveiga has remained rooted in the values that inspired the company in the first place: sustainability, innovation, and changing the way we all relate to food.

This is a story not just about scaling a business, but about reshaping an entire industry.

From Design Student to Food-Tech Founder

Before Mimica became a food-tech company, it started with a designer’s eye. Solveiga’s background was not in food science but in industrial design. While still a student, she developed the concept for Bump, a tactile cap/tag designed to help visually impaired individuals identify if food had spoiled.

That early idea soon revealed a much wider potential. Solveiga realised that the same innovation could help tackle the 70% of food waste that’s still perfectly edible, caused by expiry dates based on conservative estimates rather than real storage conditions.

Her curiosity and sense of responsibility led her to explore how packaging could do more than simply protect food, it could communicate freshness in real time. That insight became her mission and the foundation for what would become Mimica.

When Innovation Became Action

When we last spoke in 2023, Mimica was testing its first commercial prototype, the Bump Cap, a smart freshness indicator fitted to juice and smoothie bottles. It was a small product with big implications. Since then, the business has launched Bump Tag, a label that attaches to any type of packaging, from steak trays to cartons, signalling when food has reached its best.

The journey from cap to tag marked a shift from single-use proof to industry-wide impact. Early this year, the demand for Solveiga’s innovation became undeniable, as the team were struck by enthusiasm from ABP Food, one of the country’s largest red-meat processors and suppliers for major UK supermarkets.

As Solveiga told us, “they were chomping at the bit to use it first, and they wanted to get it out to 100 households”.

Development was completed, and the household trial was a success. The result? An overwhelmingly positive consumer response and a ripple of interest from major retailers and manufacturers.

The trial confirmed what the team already believed: the science works in real homes, and its power lies in a mechanism designed to be understood instantly.

The technology is elegant in its simplicity. Each Bump Tag contains a plant-based gel that changes texture as the product is exposed to temperature over time. When it’s smooth, the food is good to enjoy, when it turns bumpy, it’s past its best. It’s a visual and tactile cue that replaces guesswork with confidence.

Earning Credibility in a High-Stakes Industry

Every innovation has its invisible costs. For Solveiga, those came early on, in the slow grind of R&D, regulatory testing, and the pressure of proving that Mimica belonged in an established, risk-averse industry.

When she reflects on those early years, she’s clear that some of the challenges weren’t only about gender, they were also tied to being a young founder building credibility in a sector defined by experience, rigour, and long-standing practices.

Solveiga explained that as she’s gained experience and Mimica has moved through different stages, many of the assumptions she faced early on happen far less often now. She believes this is a natural part of establishing yourself in any industry, proving you know what you’re talking about and earning trust over time.

Turning Points: Building for Scale and Impact

Mimica’s next chapter began with a bold decision: to take production into its own hands. In early 2025, the company opened a production and R&D facility in Wrexham, North Wales, bringing everything under one roof for the first time. Until then, Mimica had relied on overseas producers. Now, the team could oversee every stage of development, from formulation to final product.

Solveiga describes the moment they stepped into the empty site as a clear milestone for the business. For her, bringing manufacturing in-house wasn’t only an operational shift, but a commitment to creating high-quality local jobs and contributing to a region that needed new opportunities. It felt, she explained, like the beginning of a new phase, one defined by ownership, control, and long-term impact.

This move also reshaped how the team worked. With production and R&D side by side for the first time, Mimica could test, refine, and scale more quickly. Decisions that once required external coordination could now happen in real time, giving the company the agility it needed for commercial rollout.

At the same time, the team sharpened its focus on where the technology could drive the greatest change. Rather than splitting attention across multiple formats, Mimica concentrated its efforts on Bump Tag, the version of the technology with the capacity to serve the categories with the highest carbon footprints and highest product value- it was a strategic shift rooted in data.

Together, these decisions laid the groundwork for Mimica’s next phase of growth: a company equipped with technology as well as the infrastructure and clarity needed to bring it into homes at scale.

Sustainability at the Core

For Mimica, sustainability isn’t a marketing term, it’s the starting point for every decision. From the earliest prototypes to the products now entering trials, the team has been intentional about designing solutions that support both people and the planet.

Both Bump Cap and Bump Tag are fully recyclable through kerbside recycling, and the gel inside is plant-based and food-safe, choices that reflect the company’s commitment to responsible innovation.

“We didn’t want to solve one problem and create another,” Solveiga said. “Sustainability has to be part of every decision.”

That mindset extends far beyond materials. It informs how Mimica manufactures, how it evaluates impact, and how it plans for scale. The goal is simple: create technology that reduces waste without adding to environmental burden - practical, circular, and built for long-term change.

A Small Label, A Big Impact

One of the most fascinating findings from Mimica’s household trials was behavioural rather than technical. The team discovered that people became more mindful of how they stored food simply because the Bump Tag was visible on the pack. Knowing the label was temperature-sensitive made consumers put items back in the fridge faster, helping food stay fresher for longer, even before the Bump Tag changed texture.

As Solveiga shared,

“Just knowing that Bump is there means that actually people were quicker to put things back in the fridge… because they don’t want the bumps to appear.”

The results speak for themselves. In the ABP steak household trial:

• 72% of participants said Bump would help them reduce food waste
• 59% believed it would save them money
• 85% wanted to see it on steak packaging in the future
• And 78% agreed it encouraged them to keep food properly chilled

Behind those numbers lies something human: peace of mind. People felt reassured their food was fresh, confident enough to waste less, and empowered to make choices based on evidence rather than anxiety.

Navigating Regulation in a Complex Industry

Food safety is non-negotiable, and Mimica operates within one of the most tightly regulated industries in the world. Yet, as Solveiga explains, expiry date calculations aren’t actually regulated, only their presence is.

In practice, most producers set shelf life using tests at 8°C, a worst-case storage assumption. However, data from Mimica’s trials shows the average UK household fridge operates closer to 4°C. This means millions of tonnes of food are discarded unnecessarily early.

As Solveiga puts it, “what we do when we work with our customers is that we're not trying to replace the date. That was never our aim. We're helping them print a longer date based on reasonable storage because, at the moment, dates are being worked out according to the worst-case scenario.”

By grounding expiry dates in realistic conditions rather than hypothetical extremes, Mimica helps manufacturers safely extend shelf life, sometimes by as much as four days, as demonstrated in one steak trial.

Bump works alongside the printed date, not instead of it, and consumers follow whichever comes first - bumps or the date. A simple instruction, “feel for bumps and check the date”, helps consumers make informed choices without compromising safety.

Values That Guide the Journey

Mimica’s values are as engineered as its product: deliberate, measurable, and continuously reviewed. Twice a year, every team member completes an anonymous survey rating how well the company has lived up to its core values.

This process keeps the business honest. It transforms values from a static statement on a website into a working feedback loop that shapes decisions day-to-day.

Her advice for new founders is simple but powerful:

• Define what you stand for early- authenticity is key.
• Revisit your values often- growth shouldn’t outpace integrity.
• See values as a living system- they should evolve alongside your company.

Championing Representation and Investment

While the industry landscape has shifted since Mimica’s early days, representation still matters. Solveiga sees encouraging signs of progress - more female founders entering the food-tech space, more conversations about equality, yet she is clear that systemic change requires balance on both sides of the table.

“I think we need more female investors making those decisions and deploying their money…because that is really how you grow wealth, to start investing. So that's the first thing. We need more female investors deciding how they want the future to look.”

During Mimica’s recent crowdfunding campaign, only 19% of new investors were women. For Solveiga, that figure highlights a broader issue: people tend to back those who look like them. Without more women investors, fewer women founders will get funded.

She’s made it a personal mission to boost the number of female investors, not only encouraging women in her community to back Mimica, but to start investing at all. Alongside that, she mentors women and founders of colour, helping to build the kind of networks she once needed herself.

Looking Ahead

Over the next 18 months, Mimica plans to roll out Bump across major UK retailers and soon expand into Europe, North America, and beyond. With over 300 companies already enquiring about partnerships, the demand is clear.

The company’s goal is ambitious yet practical: to make expiry dates smarter, not scarier, reflecting reasonable storage instead of worst-case testing. In doing so, Mimica hopes to cut food waste from meat and fish by up to 22% in the UK alone.

A Future Built on Trust, Science, and Simplicity

What makes Mimica special is its perspective. The business operates at the meeting point of science and empathy, translating data into design and sustainability into everyday habits.

Solveiga’s leadership mirrors that same blend of intellect and heart. Thoughtful, measured, and mission-led, she represents a new generation of founders proving that innovation can be both rigorous and human.

At the end of our conversation, she returned to the bigger picture. For her, Mimica is about creating change that people can feel, literally and figuratively.

“Smooth label, off we go - fully enjoy the meal.”

It’s a simple phrase that captures the essence of Mimica’s mission: to replace anxiety with confidence, and waste with value. As she looks to the future, Solveiga sees not just a company, but a movement, one that redefines how we all think about food, safety, and sustainability.

Mimica isn’t just redefining freshness, it’s redefining trust: between brands and consumers, and between science and society.

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