By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 20 Oct: Aryan Singh an alumnus from UPES School of Business batch of 2017-19 along with two of his friends Akshit Saxena and Aditya Kashyap, have come together to create a healthy alternative for all bread lovers with their food start-up named ‘FitBread’. Under the advice and counselling of the UPES Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UCIE), the start-up was founded in 2021 and has already started garnering appreciation from the consumers. UCIE has been incorporated to foster entrepreneurship and help incubate organisations in the Uttarakhand region with mentoring and giving students access to resources. FitBread range is currently available in the whole of Uttarakhand region in six different flavors namely Indian Masala, Herbs and Garlic, Flax and Oats, Sprout Bread, Super Food, Extreme Fibre and are made with common everyday ingredients found in household kitchens.
IDEA BEHIND THE STARTUP: Aryan, Akshit and Aditya run a café together where they realised that a lot of people would complain about the breads that are currently available. That is when the idea of producing healthy breads came to them and upon further research they realised that breads being produced for commercial purpose were using preservatives, artificial colours, emulsifiers, improvers, acidity regulators, flour treatment agents in high quantities. Aryan Singh, co-founder of FitBread says, “Some of the most popular brands have only 38% wheat flour in their atta bread and only 32% in brown bread, the remaining is maida or white flour. In multigrain loaves of bread, the grains are just used on the outer layer of the loaf.” Aditya Kashyap, one of the founders of FitBread, is a diet chef and started experimenting with various combinations, to find out where he could make improvements. It took him six long months and almost 20 batch trials to come up with the right mix. “Each loaf of FitBread is made from whole wheat atta dough, expertly kneaded with flax seeds, oats, and amaranth seeds, so that the grains are found not just on the crust, but inside the loaf as well”, says Aditya. “FitBread products are free from preservatives, molasses and any kind of artificial improvers. They are nutritious and, most importantly, tasty too!”, he adds. EMPOWERING LOCAL COMMUNITIES: While the objective of FitBread is to provide for a healthier bread option to people, we also aim at strengthening local community through inclusion and skilltraining. Aryan Singh, Cofounder at FitBread says, “At FitBread, ingredients are sourced locally from small vendors, thus creating additional Business-toBusiness (B2B) revenue channels. The procurement of regional superfoods for FitBread products is a boon to local businesses.” Akshit Saxena adds to it and says, “The firm is also actively hiring a women workforce for the bread-making process while also imparting additional bakery skills and training to them which has further resulted in financial empowerment of the local communities in Uttarakhand.” The founders of FitBread are working with the vision to expand their operations to other states as well. They are passionate about educating people about wellness and creating post-pandemic sustainable and scalable growth opportunities for local businesses.
