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Chicken salt might sound like something dreamed up during a midnight snack run, but it’s a real thing — and for Australians, it’s practically a food group. That’s where Dr. Khasha Touloei grew up, and where the salty, golden powder made its way onto just about everything. Fast forward a few years and a medical degree later, Touloei was treating patients in the U.S. with high blood pressure and diabetes — people who needed to cut salt and meat, but didn’t want their food to taste like cardboard. That’s when he started thinking about the yellow stuff again.
Rather than import the Australian version (which includes additives and chicken fat), Touloei teamed up with longtime friend Maynard Okereke, an engineer and entrepreneur, to make something a little different. Their Chicken Salt was vegan, lower in sodium, and launched under a brand they called JADA. It picked up a small online following, but the company wanted visibility. After missing a casting call in Los Angeles, Touloei and Okereke flew to Nebraska for a last-chance “Shark Tank” audition — hoping a national TV pitch might finally get their seasoning into more kitchens.
What happened to Chicken Salt on Shark Tank?
By the time Dr. Khasha Touloei and Maynard Okereke made it in front of the Sharks, Chicken Salt had already carved out a small niche. But the partners weren’t just pitching seasoning — they brought a second product, too: Chick’n Mix, a powdered vegan meat alternative designed to be mixed with oil and water, then shaped into whatever form you’d normally reserve for chicken — nuggets, patties, strips, you name it. It was a clever pitch with clean branding, but not every Shark was sold.
Mark Cuban bowed out first, saying the brand lacked a clear focus between its two different product lines. Lori Greiner and Kevin O’Leary both expressed concerns about the competitive landscape — seasoning blends and plant-based meat products were already tough categories dominated by larger players. For O’Leary, there was an added hesitation: He questioned whether Touloei’s and Okereke’s existing careers would leave them enough time to scale the business properly. Daymond John liked the concept but felt Chick’n Mix was too early in its development to justify an investment. One by one, the Sharks dropped out.
The exception was Barbara Corcoran. She praised the flavor, telling the founders, “Let me tell you guys, it tastes exactly like chicken,” and offered $250,000 in exchange for 33% of the company. It wasn’t the flashiest deal in “Shark Tank” history, but it was the only one on the table. Touloei and Okereke took it. With a seasoned investor behind them and a national audience watching, JADA walked away with a new partner — and a shot at proving the skeptics wrong.
How did Chicken Salt do after Shark Tank?
“Shark Tank” exposure is a double-edged blade. It can send your sales into overdrive — and your operations into chaos. For JADA, the post-episode rush was very real. Chick’n Mix officially launched the same night its segment aired in November 2020, and the orders didn’t trickle in — they surged. Buyers and distributors came calling almost immediately, drawn by the sudden burst of visibility.
The success came with pressure. Suddenly, JADA was a brand to watch. But post-show momentum only goes so far — other “Shark Tank” plant-based brands, like Atlas Monroe, saw early success too, only to struggle when it came time to scale. Before the show, JADA was already scraping to keep up with Chicken Salt orders. Now, it had a whole new product to manage — one that required more than just restocking jars.
Chick’n Mix was shelf-stable, soy-free, protein-heavy, and pitched as a clean-label meat replacement. But that also meant new packaging, manufacturing logistics, and marketing strategies — layered onto an already stretched operation. While Corcoran’s investment helped get the product off the ground, scaling it beyond e-commerce would’ve required even more.
JADA kept its Amazon store stocked, but major retail partnerships didn’t follow immediately. Chick’n Mix stayed online only, while Chicken Salt remained the core product. The initial hype put JADA on the map and showed real demand for its products — but turning early attention into lasting growth was a much steeper climb.
Is JADA Spice still in business?
JADA Spice is still in business, rebranded as JADA Brands. While the logo looks sleeker and the site’s more polished, the essentials haven’t changed too much. Chicken Salt is still front and center — available in flavors like red pepper, lime, barbecue, and turmeric — with Chick’n Mix sitting alongside it. Both products are available on Amazon, but you won’t find them lining store shelves at Target or Trader Joe’s just yet.
The brand’s social media tells a similar story. There are signs of life — giveaway posts, reposted reviews, occasional product promos — but little in the way of major collaborations, viral recipes, or splashy grocery partnerships. After the “Shark Tank” glow faded, so did the brand’s daily presence.
Even so, there’s something to be said for staying in the game. Many “Shark Tank” brands explode and vanish within a year — like Coffee Joulies, a buzzy startup that never fully took off after the cameras stopped rolling. JADA didn’t meet that fate. It’s not dominating the plant-based space, but it’s still standing. The products are available, the site’s active, and the rebrand suggests it’s still investing — even if it’s doing it more quietly than before.
What’s the future of JADA Spice and Chicken Salt?
The last major product launch from JADA came in 2021 when the company introduced a plant-based Porkless Mix alongside a Mediterranean Chick’n flavor. Since then, the lineup has held steady – no new products, no major rebranding, and no hints about expansion on its website.
Today, the focus seems to be on maintaining its current catalog. Chicken Salt is still available in a handful of flavors, Chick’n Mix remains in stock on Amazon, and the website is polished enough to suggest someone is still behind the wheel. But major moves? There haven’t been any. While “Shark Tank” alum Project Pollo (a plant-based fast food chain) expanded into the restaurant space, JADA stayed focused on direct-to-consumer sales through Amazon and its own site. It isn’t exactly expanding into chain restaurants or reinventing the vegan aisle — at least not publicly.
As for the founders, Maynard Okereke remains listed as COO of JADA Brands, while Dr. Khasha Touloei appears to have shifted his focus back to medicine, working full-time as a practicing dermatologist in California — a move that, in hindsight, might have validated O’Leary’s concerns about the demands of growing the business.
Even so, JADA is still standing — no small feat in a category that eats startups for breakfast. And if it ever decides to reboot its product line or take another swing at expansion, it’ll be worth watching. Until then, to see where it all started, “Shark Tank” is available for purchase on Prime Video.
