The conversation around health has moved beyond exercise and diet plans, giving way to the buzzword “Nutrition”. We have always looked at food from an energy perspective rather than nutrition. With growing awareness amidst poor lifestyles, consumers want to know exactly what they are eating, what they should eat and what needs to be supplemented.
Does My Food Contain Enough Nutrition?
From ready to cook meals to a chocolate bar, the technical information declared on food labels stating complex ingredients, nutrition facts, and daily recommended values, serving sizes, allergens and more, often leave us overwhelmed. Startups have entered the space by empowering people with the knowledge of ‘what exactly they are eating, is it healthy, what nutrition does it have?’
Mumbai-based start-up The Nutrition Alchemy has developed a platform called LabelBlind which simplifies complex information on food labels and reviews and rates food products to guide consumers to make smart food choices that support good health and well being. The free-to-use platform has 8,000 products listed, across 120 categories and customized product recommendations based on user health profiles.
Click a picture of a food plate and the app will automatically detect its nutrition information. Mumbai-based GOQii, the preventive healthcare app, uses artificial intelligence, neural networks, computer vision and image recognition to analyse Indian and continental food.
Bengaluru-based start-up HealthifyMe has developed an AI powered nutritionist, named Ria, that assists people regarding their meals. For instance, you can ask Ria to tell you how much nutrition you had in your food a day before or what you can eat today to supplement the diet. It can even analyse a picture of your lunch to tell you what you should go eat for your dinner.
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Start-ups are simplifying technical information declared on food labels stating complex ingredients, nutrition facts, and daily recommended values, serving sizes, allergens and more.
Is My Meat Vegetarian?
Udaipur-based start-up Good Dot is cashing in on the rising trend of plant-based food leanings in the Indian market offering vegetarian achari tikkas, ready-to-eat biryani, Thai curries with mock meats and vegan mutton that boast of eliminating cholesterol and trans fats from your diet.
Another start-up EVO Foods is serving up Asia’s first plant-based egg, which may well be the answer for the dietary needs of India’s 400-million-strong vegetarian population who are often told that they have no alternative to the protein provided by an egg. Anyone for a vegetarian Omelette now?
Who Thought Snacks Could Be Nutritious
Snacks have always been associated with fat, unhealthy, zero nutritious food. However, this notion has been debunked by a lot of start-ups which have changed the way we look at snacks. From whole wheat waffles to fudge bars to staple-based snacks promoting healthy Indian diet, start-ups like Snackable, The Green Snack Co, Snack experts, Yoga Bars, have put almost everything on the table in this category.
Besides snacks, start-ups like Zoe Nutrition and Andme.in are providing wholesome nutritious food products with the help of food scientists, dieticians, and chefs to curb the nutrition deficiency among consumers.
What’s in it for me?
There is no doubt that consumers have changed the way they evaluate their food intake and habits. Every body works differently and hence every solution needs to be unique. Take for instance, having probiotics might do no good to my body as compared to others. But I want a solution that will keep me healthy. Hence, personalisation is the key.
A consumer has healthy choices today, but still doesn’t know what exactly will benefit them. DNA diet is one good example of that.
