Read full article by Angarika Gogoi @TheBetterIndia Photo Credit: TheBetterIndia
“With each packet of the mix, we provide a booklet of 55 recipes,” informs founder Shruti Ajmera Reddy.
Parents always want the best for their children, especially when it comes to food, because of the important role it plays in protecting them from illnesses, and promoting healthy growth and development.
Shruti Ajmera Reddy was no different. During her pregnancy her extensive research revealed that natural greens and millets topped the list of the most nutritious food she could feed her child, along with oats, barley and others.
But post-childbirth, the working mum who was managing her venture at the time, found it extremely challenging to incorporate all the healthy ingredients in her son’s meals.
“I started researching healthy baby food mixes in the market that were preservative-free, all-natural and could be fed to my kid, along with homemade food. However, not only was there a shortage of such products in the market but what I read up about baby food shocked me,” mentions Shruti.
Shruti found that 95 per cent of baby foods contain one or more toxic chemicals like arsenic, mercury and lead, which have long term effects on the health of children.
While she was dismayed with the information, she also thought about parents like her, who were in the same boat, and wanted to provide their babies with the best nutrition but could not find quality products that passed their intense scrutiny.
This set the wheels in her head churning, and after a lot of research, in October 2018, she founded Hapup, a startup which provides nutritional mixes that are devoid of any kind of chemicals, preservatives, salt or even sugar.
Hapup’s mixes contain healthy ingredients like ragi, jowar, bajra, foxtail millet, horse gram, kidney beans, green gram, almond, peanuts red rice among others. Most of these grains have been sourced by farming collectives like the Timbaktu Collective, which ensures that they are of good quality.
“These mixes are completely natural, and some contain the goodness of about 16+ ingredients. While they can be made at home, it is challenging to source pure ingredients, and this is where Hapup comes in,” she says.
The best part is that these mixes are healthy not just for your baby but can be consumed by the entire family.
“Adults can add the mix to their chapatis, pancakes, smoothies, dosas, idlis, cakes among others. With each packet of the mix, we provide a booklet of 55 recipes so that our consumers can get creative in the ways they incorporate the mix to their food,” explains the 33-year-old entrepreneur.
Since they started operations, Hapup has about 10 stock keeping units (SKUs) in their inventory and have catered to customers in about 45+ cities. Their products have also been approved by paediatricians, and hospitals like the Nice Hospital, Krishna Children’s Hospital among others.
