Farm to fork

What if you could buy home-style meals like vada pav with sauce, ajwaini paratha or gobi manchurian right out of a vending machine? That is what Dalchini’s Prerna Kalra is hoping to bring to offices and other public places using an Internet of Things (IoT)-powered vending machine that can bring high-quality food combined with the convenience of delivery.

“We want to bring vending machines that can fit into offices,” explains Kalra, the co-founder and CEO of the start-up, at a Sodexo Accelerator programme held in Mumbai. Currently, his venture has piloted a few machines in Delhi and wants to target the National Capital Region market. What’s more, their app can guide users towards a nearby vending machine and allows to pay via a mobile wallet.

Then there’s Mumbai-based S4S Technologies, which is trying to solve farm and fork problems. The company provides solar-powered, high-quality dehydrators to farmers who can best utilise their unsold produce, which is then marketed by the start-up under the DesiVideshi brand. Be it muskmelon or pineapple chunks or beetroot chips, S4S Technologies is creating healthy snacks while trying to eliminate the common problem of produce wastage right at the source, all done in a way that benefits the environment.

What’s in my plate?

These start-ups, according to Rishi Gour, the country president of Sodexo On-Site Services India, are targeting an increasingly popular trend of food consumption in India. More and more Indians want to eat fresher, healthier food with the benefits of speed, convenience and price. “Apart from healthy eating, the well-travelled and well-informed consumers also seek ethically-sourced food along with sustainable methods,” Gour says.

After the growth of food-delivery services like Swiggy and FoodPanda, start-ups are now working on further easing the pains in the process of food delivery. Most of them are combining forces with agritech companies to convert deficiencies in the food chain into opportunities.

“In India, 30-35% of produce perishes due to lack of good quality storage facilities. So, cold storage could be one area, along with the use of IoT and robotics for food processing and maintaining compliance. Consumers are now preferring foods with fewer preservatives so that is another area for innovation,” says Sachin Seth, partner and national leader of tech transformation at EY.

Billions of dollars

Globally, the size of foodtech industry is pegged at around $250 billion. India, however, has remained a traditional market when it comes to all aspects of food, including food delivery, distribution, processing, packaging, preparation as well as procurement. Most of these functions are either automated or partly automated in most of the developed countries. India, experts say, has the potential to become a multi-billion dollar foodtech market in the future. “We are still at a nascent stage and I see a bright future for foodtech in the next three to five years. Food delivery start-ups is only the starting point for this market as there are many aspects that need an overhaul like food nutrition, hygiene and others,” says Ajay Ramasubramaniam, director of Zone Startups India. Zone Startups and Sodexo India launched a one-year Enterprise Foodtech programme that can strengthen food services in India, by betting on evolving business models.

As consumer preference for organic and less processed foods is increasing, it could evolve into a new and emerging area within the food space, widening the market. “Consumers are willing to spend more on understanding what and how they are eating and its impact on health and environment,” Gour says.