Food start-up incubated at UPES seeks to empower local communities

Three passionate youngsters including UPES alumnus Aryan Singh founded ‘FitBread’ to provide preservative-free, whole-wheat bread. Their hiring of women workforce and using locally-sourced ingredients has resulted in the financial empowerment of Uttarakhand communities

In the past decade, the Indian market has hardly seen any variegation in bread products. Consumers have to choose from the same monotonous range of brown bread, atta bread or multigrain bread. Being produced commercially, they use preservatives, artificial colours, emulsifiers, improvers, acidity regulators, flour treatment agents, and often do not divulge complete information about the ingredients they use. 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.

Three young minds, Akshit Saxena, Aditya Kashyap, and UPES alumnus (MBA in International Business, 2017-19) Aryan Singh, understood the gap and began working to create a healthy and genuine alternative for bread-lovers. And in 2021, ‘FitBread’ was born as India’s first fitness bread brand. Incubated by UPES Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UCIE), it has already started garnering appreciation from the consumers.

Baking the recipe to health

One of the founders of FitBread, a diet chef, 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.

FitBread products are produced with whole wheat grain atta, and are free from preservatives, molasses, improvers, acidity regulators, flour treatment agents, artificial colours, and emulsifiers. They are nutritious and, most importantly, tasty too!

FitBread range is available in six different flavours and is made with common everyday ingredients found in household kitchens.

Strengthening local community through inclusion and skill-training

At FitBread, ingredients are sourced locally from small vendors, thus creating additional Business-to-Business (B2B) revenue channels. The procurement of regional superfoods for FitBread products is a boon to local businesses. The hiring of a women workforce for the bread-making process while also imparting additional bakery skills and training to them, has 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. These entrepreneurs are working with the core belief of staying “committed to being connected” to their roots.