Start-up bazaar — A shout-out to healthy food - The Tribune India

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 29

New ideas, innovations, endeavours and unique plans defined the philosophy of the start-up bazaar at TiECon-2020.

Be it health, natural food, supporting farmers, creating new recipes with traditional spices and ingredients, the bazaar was food for thought.

In a unique endeavour which is taking farmers towards diversity, Aman Sekhon’s journey to create ‘Farmercing’ began with a painful experience.

“Farmers’ suicides made me so sad that I decided to give up my plans to join the civil services to begin this endeavour in Mansa. I wanted to help farmers grow diverse crops such as millets and pulses and give them a platform to sell these as well, with women being an integral part of this venture,” said Sekhon.

“Women in rural areas are encouraged to make jams, bakery items, squashes, etc. We have farmers on board, who are focusing on good agricultural practices to increase productivity. We will offer a range of products in a few months and also provide a platform to women entrepreneurs,” he said.

With more than 12 varieties of pure, fresh honey from across the country, Dhiresh Pahuja of Foret One Vision, The Healthy World is working towards creating a healthy alternative to white sugar and also educating people on how to use honey in innovative ways in their food and drinks.

“Honey is widely used in our homes, but sadly it is also one of the most adulterated products in the market. The aim is to give authentic products to people and that’s the reason that Foret began its journey in 2017.”

“We are three of us from our engineering batch at Chitkara. Our company is based in Rajpura and we move boxes around the country to get the purest honey from Uttarakhand to Kashmir. We also offer honey infused with natural flavours such as neem, cinnamon, clove and will soon diversify into products like green tea, juices, jams, wines and want to tie with people to produce concentrates, slush, squashes with honey instead of sugar,” said Pahuja.

From one spice mix that Ritu created in her kitchen for her children to now 22 products, which her Dera Bassi-based company Fine Herbs offer to people, it is the philosophy of purity that guides the young woman, who loves creating food stuff free from any chemicals, preservatives and adulteration.

“It has been an exciting journey. From almond to mustard oil, pure black pepper to chilli powder, ‘makhanas’ to curry mix, I make everything without chemicals,” Ritu added.

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