03/12/2026
Remember when I told you that Chamaele was the first company in Ohio to register sea moss legally?!
I'm going to be a little vulnerable here.
Story time!...I love a good story.
Here's a glimpse into our challenging start.
We began at Findlay Market Spring, April 2021 and we were operating from our home.
We wanted to do everything "the right way," so we started registering our products and learning the difference in ODA and FDA regulations.
We were forced to do a voluntary recall on all our products ( here's the link! https://agri.ohio.gov/divisions/food-safety/recalls/chamaele-llc-improper-processing), they shut us down! I remember thinking, "this is why people stay under-the-table." I felt so embarrassed!
We were supposed to be in a commercial kitchen for all our products!
We had already started the process for the incubator kitchen 2020, which was a blessing. So, we were able to get the inspection process done quickly with the help of Tef Jones creating our logos and later sea moss gel labels (shoutout to him!) and May Love creating all our labels!
Honey was only supposed to be a table filler. My sister received a gift from Ms. Delah Bee in NY (check her out), and I inquired about having her honey on my table but my little pockets couldn't afford it at the time.
Already being into raw honey, I researched how to infuse it naturally myself (I wanted all the benefits to remain!)! And was blessed that I started that process! It became my main product.
The ODA shut us down from June until September, we couldn't sell any sea moss gel!!! Had to take it off our website and everything!
They had no clue what it was or if they were supposed to regulate it or the FDA. I did everything they asked! Found a supplier in St.Lucia got paperwork of water being tested for heavy metal (they said naw), found someone in the US (that didn't work). By end of July I had given up and decided to focus on the honey and we could still manufacturer our dried supplements (including raw sea moss).
We got an email September, and suddenly, we were approved to add sea moss gel back to our product list! Sales had ceased, so of course getting back started the decrease was drastic, but we kept pushing! Now our sea moss gel can be found at Jungle Jim's and ETC produce!
Come see me at Findlay market this weekend!
Stay tuned for our book! We're going to take you from kitchen to commercial!!!!
I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek 😉
If you're facing challenges, keep pushing, build resilience!
The facts are in the receipts!!!!