Start-ups giving nutrition ratings move up the value chain

Taking advantage of the buzz around food safety following concerns over Maggi noodles, start-ups providing nutritional advice and ratings among packaged food brands are expected to get a boost in raising money from investors.

Start-ups such as Wise Tummy and Purple Kaddu are looking forward to better consumer traction on their sites as they prepare for a series of funding options.

Their business model is based on giving consumers the nutritional content of packaged food and beverage brands.

In the case of Mumbai-based Purple Kaddu, it had already issued a food sensitivity alert on its site for the 2-minute Maggi noodles much before the government decided to ban the brand.

Giving unbiased food ratings is the forte of the seven-month-old company, which has a rating system based on the presence of healthy nutrients such as proteins, fibres, vitamins and minerals across 500 packaged FMCG brands from chips to juices.

“It may be an unfortunate incident for Maggi but we feel such an event will make the market ready to accept our concept and invite investors into our start-up.

“We have got a valuation between $2 million and $5 million having invested ₹15 lakh behind setting up our site almost six months ago,’’ says Vishal Davda, CEO & Founder, Purple Kaddu.

The concept of nutrition rating among packaged food and beverage brands is still new in India unlike in the US where sites such as Food Facts, Fooducate and Nutrition Rank, help consumers in eating healthy packaged food.

“Indian consumers are getting health conscious and the Maggi issue will bring about more change and drive traction into our site.

We have also issued warnings against other noodle brands like Top Ramen atta noodles and Sunfeast Yippee noodles for high content of MSG as companies tend to camouflage it under ingredients like hydrogenated groundnut oil,’’ Davda added.

Bengaluru-based Wise Tummy with its tagline ‘Understand Packaged food better’ is also hoping to ride on the Maggi alert to consumers.

“We are here to help consumers choose safe and healthy options based on a rating system and the Maggi incident only re-enforces the fact that there is market for our idea.

“It makes us more confident to raise money from angel investors having valued our two-month-old business at $ 3 million,’’ says Gaurav Maheshswari, Founder & CEO, Wise Tummy.

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