Indian food is famous worldover for its fragrance and flavour profile. Apart from taste, Ayurveda mentions that Indian food is sufficient fuel for our body. This is because the food is mostly plant-based and includes a variety of legumes, pulses, fruits and more.
Yet India is the Diabetes Capital of the world. Over 40% of Indians are obese and around 43% of people with normal BMI are metabolically unhealthy. Over 70% of Indians felt their health getting worse after the Covid-19 induced lockdown.
These numbers are based on the current eating patterns of Indians. On average 70% of calories gained by Indians come from the intake of poor quality carbohydrates like white rice, bread and starchy foods. Where the WHO recommends 5 teaspoons of sugar, Indians on average have 15 teaspoons of sugar a day.
To bridge the gap between eating healthy and delicious, childhood friends Apoorva Gururaj and Suresh Reddy launched Foodio.fit in 2020. The duo wanted to make food that sufficed both the brain (healthy) and the heart (tasty).
Apoorva holds a Master degree in food science and nutrition. She had previously worked with Britannia, Apollo, HUL, Grow Fit, Jiyo Natural and other companies before starting her own startup. Suresh on the other hand is a serial entrepreneur with Foodio.fit being his 5th venture.
The startup claims to be India’s first Healthy Packaged food brand that serves healthy vegetable-made chips, seed-based flour and natural beverages. Their offerings include low carb, multigrain, high protein, keto and more. The Bengaluru based startup sources its material from local farmers and runs multiple quality tests before the final product gets packaged.
Within a year of inception, they had delivered to 5000 customers and to date they have achieved 1 lakh+ orders. They are present on marketplaces like Amazon, Swiggy, Bigbasket and more. The bootstrapped venture has over 50 distributors from where 60% of its revenue comes. The rest 40% comes from their B2C space.
Apart from India, they serve in the USA, Australia and the UK. They want to expand to Africa, New Zealand, Dubai and Singapore. They also plan to establish themselves in 1000 new retail stores. According to the Fortune Business Insights report, the global health snack market will reach $108.11 billion by 2027.
Will startups like Foodio.fit be able to help Indians gain the right fuel by eating right