#OutlookBusiness Presents 'Re-Imagining Instant Food' with #YuFoodlabs
If eating clean is increasingly becoming a lifestyle, YU Foodlabs is a literal haven for instant food consumption.
| Here's Shonakshi Chakravarty from #OutlookBusiness presenting 'Re-Imagining Instant Food' with #YuFoodlabs.
#HealthyFoods #Food #Health #Lifestyle #Foodlabs #yufoods #msgfree #NoCompromise #ChnaceHiNahi #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
| Here's Shonakshi Chakravarty from #OutlookBusiness presenting 'Re-Imagining Instant Food' with #YuFoodlabs.
#HealthyFoods #Food #Health #Lifestyle #Foodlabs #yufoods #msgfree #NoCompromise #ChnaceHiNahi #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:05 We started off with this idea in November 2020 out
00:10 of 100 square feet room.
00:12 We're now at 24,000 square feet food lab in Gurgaon.
00:16 We are not from the FMCG background at all.
00:19 We're, in fact, finance professionals.
00:22 And then we looked at various industries,
00:24 including the food industry from an outside lens as a banker.
00:28 We finally took an entrepreneurial turn
00:30 very late in our careers.
00:31 In fact, in the late '30s, a lot of our colleagues
00:33 thought that we were crazy.
00:34 They still think we are crazy.
00:36 While we are still a make in India story,
00:38 we'll always be a make in India story.
00:40 The technology that we use, I think
00:41 it is the most advanced in food science.
00:43 Not added preservatives, no preservatives.
00:45 No preservatives.
00:46 No preservatives.
00:47 We sell where food sells.
00:48 So we are completely omnichannel.
00:51 We're offline.
00:52 We're online.
00:53 We're in airlines.
00:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:57 Hello, and welcome to Outlook Business.
01:02 I'm your host, Shanakshi Chakraborty.
01:04 And this is the one-stop shop where
01:06 we discuss everything business, money, and startups.
01:10 Well, unfortunately, I managed to skip my lunch today.
01:13 And I have been craving for some pasta.
01:15 But guess what?
01:16 I have a bowl of pasta just before me.
01:20 I'm going to dig in and take a bite of this pasta.
01:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:26 This surprisingly tastes so delicious.
01:30 But guess what?
01:31 This has come out of this box.
01:34 And I wonder how.
01:35 Well, I'm in the national capital.
01:36 And I will be joined by the duo, Mr. Varun Kapoor and Mr. Bharat
01:40 Bhalla of YouFoods, who claim that they are disrupting
01:44 the instant food segment in the food and snacking industry.
01:48 Let's find out more.
01:49 How exactly are they doing this?
01:51 Hello, Bharat.
01:52 Hello, Varun.
01:53 Thanks very much for speaking with Outlook Business.
01:56 I just happened to try some delicious pasta,
01:59 only to realize that it's out of this box.
02:02 And it's a meal out of a bowl.
02:04 How did you guys get it right?
02:07 Thank you for having us, Shanakshi.
02:09 At YouFoods, our endeavor has always
02:11 been to provide instant foods to consumers
02:15 that are as close as possible to freshly prepared food.
02:19 We do this largely by virtue of three pillars
02:21 that we follow over here at YouFoods.
02:24 The first one being that we only use 100% natural ingredients.
02:27 So we use every ingredient that we
02:29 use in our process, in our recipes,
02:31 has no preservatives, no chemicals,
02:34 no artificial ingredients whatsoever.
02:36 The second aspect is whenever we pass the food
02:39 through the various recipes and the various processes,
02:42 we don't add any chemicals, any preservatives,
02:45 any artificial substances, no preservatives,
02:48 no artificial substances, no colors into the food
02:52 so that for an end consumer, he cannot tell
02:54 that there is any sort of preservatives
02:56 or artificial taste in the food that they consume.
02:59 And the third very important aspect
03:00 is the fact that we use a very advanced food science
03:03 technology that allows us to retain the flavor, aroma,
03:06 and texture of the food when we provide this food
03:09 to the consumers in a box.
03:11 I still have my doubts.
03:13 It says the shelf life is 9 to 12 months.
03:16 That can't be possible.
03:17 This dabba from you and I can have it next year.
03:19 Is there some sort of a catch?
03:21 No, no, there's no catch.
03:22 This is absolutely true.
03:23 So this is-- Bharat spoke about the technology that we use.
03:25 I think it is the most advanced in food science.
03:28 It's a technology used by NASA.
03:31 And we got inspired after reading their literature.
03:34 And this is essentially called freeze drying or lyophilization.
03:38 And it allows for us to dehydrate this food
03:42 that we freshly prepare at our laboratory
03:45 through a very advanced process, allowing for 99.7%, 99.8%
03:49 of the moisture to be taken out of the food.
03:52 And despite not adding any preservatives,
03:54 a shelf life is created to the extent of 12 months.
03:56 So what are the challenges really you face?
03:59 A, and B, how do you plan on still conquering all of those
04:03 and still believe in the fact that you can disrupt this space?
04:06 So for us, one of the biggest challenges
04:08 has been to take that guilt factor out.
04:10 Because we are trying to tell the consumer that this
04:13 is as good as freshly prepared food.
04:15 So you have to have no guilt.
04:16 You don't need to think you're eating out of a box,
04:18 like how we used to think conventionally.
04:20 So that education is kind of challenging.
04:22 I mean, I think the easier option here for me to not worry
04:25 about is that this doesn't have any added preservatives
04:27 or chemicals or any of those things which are otherwise
04:30 available in--
04:31 Not added preservatives, no preservatives.
04:33 No preservatives.
04:34 No preservatives, no chemicals.
04:37 So it's a good thing, isn't it?
04:39 Well, why don't you run me through your product range?
04:41 What all do you have?
04:42 Let's talk about that.
04:44 So we went to market with six SKUs
04:47 in two product categories.
04:48 The first one was the instant pasta.
04:51 That came in three flavors.
04:53 So that was the three cheese pasta, which
04:55 you're holding right now.
04:56 It's the peri-peri pasta and a creamy tomato pasta.
04:59 So three SKUs for the pasta category.
05:02 And then you had three sort of fresh fruit-based oats,
05:06 which is banana caramel.
05:08 We had a berry, apple, cinnamon, and a peanut butter.
05:10 So we started off with these six.
05:12 And then in December of 2021, we launched halwas.
05:16 Again, in three variants.
05:17 We had an amritsari halwa, gajar halwa, and a moong dal halwa.
05:21 How much is this worth that I'm holding in my hand?
05:24 This is 95 rupees.
05:24 This is 95.
05:25 This is just 95 rupees, guys.
05:27 So all your products is below 100 rupees, the 100 rupee mark.
05:32 And trust me, if you actually do the math, which I actually
05:35 did while I was speaking to the founders,
05:37 it's way cheaper than you ordering online
05:39 on a daily basis.
05:41 So one meal that will cost you online
05:43 will be more than 200 to 300 rupees.
05:45 This in my hand is less than 100 rupees.
05:48 And it's a full meal in itself.
05:50 So that's great.
05:52 I just wanted to also understand about the investing
05:56 and the investors.
05:56 Who are your investors?
05:58 Let's talk about that.
06:00 So as Bharat mentioned, apart from us
06:02 and some of the management team which
06:04 kind of participated with us in seed funding this business,
06:09 last year when we raised the seed round,
06:11 we had the Asian Paints family, which is led by Manish Choksi.
06:15 So he participated.
06:16 And we had a set of other investors
06:19 from private equity background, from technology background,
06:23 et cetera.
06:24 We're now in the middle of doing our series.
06:26 In fact, we've kind of completed it.
06:28 We're just doing allotments.
06:30 Apart from the existing investors who came in again,
06:32 we have one very large, prominent public market
06:35 investor who's kind of coming in a big way.
06:39 He's led the round.
06:40 So that kind of diversifies our investor base further.
06:44 It's a larger round than what we did last year.
06:46 So what is UFood's next ambition in the startup revolution?
06:51 We have about 10 more products that are lined up
06:53 that we will sort of bring to the market.
06:57 So that's a big aspect for us.
06:58 And then based over here in India,
07:00 so while we are still a Make in India story,
07:02 we'll always be a Make in India story.
07:04 We want to be a consumer food brand that
07:06 appeals to the world and actually
07:07 make a name as a consumer food brand across the globe.
07:11 Inside the UFood labs, where all the action unfolds,
07:14 with the chefs and with the founders, let's go straight in.
07:18 So essentially, we first prepare food
07:21 like you prepare food at home or in a restaurant.
07:23 The same way we prepare food.
07:24 We don't add any chemicals.
07:25 It's just a straightforward food using our proprietary recipes.
07:29 It's prepared in bulk.
07:31 Once fresh food is prepared, it moves
07:33 into something called a freezer, where
07:36 we blast freeze the product.
07:38 Obviously, ice forms around the product.
07:40 And immediately after that, it goes into a vacuum chamber.
07:42 In the vacuum chamber, the ice evaporates.
07:45 And what you're left with is 99.8% dehydrated food.
07:49 Immediately from there, it goes to packaging.
07:55 In packaging, we only use paper.
07:56 We don't use any plastic in this organization.
07:59 All our packaging is food-grade paper.
08:01 So in that sense, we're a little bit more conscious
08:03 of the environment and the effects
08:05 that certain materials have on the environment.
08:07 But yeah, essentially, that's our four-step process,
08:10 where we cook, we freeze, we dry, and we pack.
08:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:18 [CHILDREN PLAYING]
08:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]