Remember Sweet Peach? The “personalised probiotic supplement” announced just last week, which was supposed to make vaginas smell like peach?
Well, it turns out the supplement all about “personal empowerment”, which aims to prevent yeast infections and UTIs, isn’t quite what it seems.
Presented at the Demo conference in San Jose, California, Austen Heinz, CEO of Cambrian Genomics, and biotech entrepreneur Gilad Gome told an audience:
“The idea we’re pushing is to do sequencing and synthesis as a way of restoring it [the vagina] to natural health. The company is being seen as wanting to smell like peach. But the vagina produces smells like any other microbiome.
“We think people should have control over their microbes and code, so if they want to add that function [fragrance] to any of their microbes, then that should be up to them.”
However, it turns out that the inventor of the product is neither Heinz nor Gome, but the 20-year-old self-described “ultra-feminist” Audrey Hutchinson, the CEO of Sweet Peach Probiotics.
Clarifying things somewhat, Hutchinson said: “I don’t think women should have vaginas that smell like peaches or anything like that.”
Inc.com also reports that while Heinz owns 10% of Hutchinson’s company, Gome has no part whatsoever.
Heinz said Gome might have started talking about Hutchinson’s company because he “got excited”.
Previously, in an interview with Motherboard – and again, despite having no involvement with Sweet Peach – Gome had described the product as being able to “make her vagina smell like roses and taste like Diet Coke.”
Hutchinson says she is furious about her product being misrepresented, telling Inc.com she vomited twice when reading the bad press around Sweet Peach.
The supplement will actually be personalised according to individuals. A sample of the “vaginal biocrome” (the makeup and ecology of microorganisms in the vagina) will be sent for analysis. Sweet Peach will then supply a course of supplements designed to balance the pH levels of the vagina, allowing “good” microbes to thrive, therefore reducing the risk of yeast infections and UTIs with the aim of optimal vaginal health.
Heinz said his company, Cambrian Genomics, might have lost funding after its association with Sweet Peach and the backlash against it, reporting that his lawyer said he “looks like Bill Cosby right now”.
Meanwhile, Heinz’s other company – which Gome is involved with – called Petomics, aims to make cat and dog poo “smell like bananas”.
Hope that clears things up.
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