The self-taught food scientist who built a protein business out of dates, camel milk, and a washing machine

(xxNF) Rashid Gargash (LinkedIn) didn’t set out to make protein bars. Rashtions began as a food security research project during his time at Georgetown University, built around a simple question: what can the desert feed us? His answer was dates and milk. Through years of self-taught experimentation, he turned that into a shelf-stable field ration, using a preservative he invented with a repurposed washing machine.

Today, Rashtions sells premium protein-packed date truffles to consumers. They’re made from Khalas dates, camel milk, and A2 ghee at a factory in Umm Al Quwain that Gargash built, and largely engineered, himself. He’s now working on turning whey liquid, a waste product of the region’s dairy industry, into a local source of protein.

Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. This week, we spoke with Gargash about turning a humanitarian prototype into a consumer brand, why he pushed his whole factory’s start time to 10am, and the advice from an 88-year-old family friend that still keeps him going. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

EnterpriseAM: Take us back to the beginning. How did Rations start?

Rashid Gargash (RG): It started as research during Georgetown University’s executive program, which deployed me to Africa as a teacher. I wanted to create a methodology to deploy so much emergency and basic food that the price of food would go down, using what the region already has.

A human being needs three things to survive: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. So I asked, “What do we have in the desert?” Wherever you go, there’s a desert, there are dates, and there’s milk. I combined them and got this sloppy paste. It tasted terrible, but it had everything a human being needed.

E: How did you turn that paste into a product?

RG: The paste had a super low shelf life and was super sticky. At UAE University, I met Dr. Afaf Kamal-Eldin, who everybody knows as the best date professor in the world. She explained a methodology called pomace, which is basically date fiber isolate. I didn’t have USD 2-3 mn for a centrifuge, so I bought a washing machine and changed the motor. I spun the dates really fast, pulled the sugar away, and invented a preservative. It makes the product non-sticky and gives it a three-month shelf life in open air.

I built a machine line that fits in the back of a car and deployed it in Africa. The children there were eating food designed for soldiers, with a three-year shelf life. But this is not a soldier, this is a child. A child wants something that tastes like a sweet.

E: Why the move to selling to consumers?

RG: I tried going the institutional route first, but it didn’t work out, and I was running out of money. So I pivoted to selling to the people. I wanted something good enough to give my nephews and nieces, so I went extremely premium: Khalas dates, A2 organic ghee, camel milk, 100% cocoa, and Brazilian coffee. I trace every ingredient back to its source. Camel milk is abundant here, and its quality is way higher than cow milk.

E: Has the food security mission taken a back seat?

RG: People don’t know, but I’m actually still on the same mission. The country needs an adequate protein source with a two-year shelf life. We make a lot of cheese, laban, and labneh in this region, and the whey liquid left over is full of protein, but it’s thrown away. I want to turn that into our own source of protein. It’s expensive, but importing it is even more expensive.

Right now, 60% to 99% of each product is sourced locally. We can’t grow cocoa and coffee here, and the protein comes from abroad because of strict certifications. Once I make my own protein, it will be at least 95%. Most of this is self-taught, but my friends are academics or in the industry, so we buy a machine and play with it. I’ve got eight patents.

E: Switching gears, what do your mornings look like?

RG: I wake up at about 10am. I noticed that in the early mornings nobody wants to deal with anything, and we don’t get orders then, so I pushed the timings for the whole factory to 10am. The first thing I do is check how my customers are doing and whether there are any complaints. Whatever the feedback is, that’s my focus for the day. My world currently revolves around my customers.

The rest of my day is honestly just work. This is my passion; yesterday I was up all night doing research. I put a CEO in place. I’m the CEO whenever I need to be, but I can’t do everything myself. Marketing doesn’t get involved with food. I’m the food science guy, and that’s the most complicated part.

E: What’s one constant in your day?

RG: The most social part of my life is going to the coffee shop for 15 to 30 minutes. I usually have a late lunch with my mom, and on Fridays we have Friday lunch.

Rashid’s favorites

What he’s reading: A comic book version of The Art of War — a very fun read if you don’t like to read.

Best advice he’s received: “That man that flew to the moon, what’s the difference between you and him? Two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Don’t you have the same?” The advice came from Auntie Sultana, an 88-year-old Gargash I would call a legend.”