UP Foods (Universal Protein Foods) - Transforming beans into benefits

The challenge

Proteins are one of the most crucial nutrients required by humans. Our food chain comprises protein from the two different sources – animals and plants. Globally, the demand of animal origin protein rich food (meat, milk and eggs) and plant based food (beans and mushrooms) is high. However, majority of such protein sources, especially meat products are costly and many people are unable to afford and include them in their regular diet. Although the consumption of animal based protein food is high , there are also significant numbers of population who prefer plant based foods. In short, more than seven billion consumers of the world is divided into two major groups ; one who prefer both foods from animals and plants, and the other who only consumes foods from plants (Vegans). This scenario creates a dual preference of consumers in the market. The other problem is the drawbacks of animal proteins. People of all age brackets cannot consume meat products. For instance, the digestive system of old people is relatively weak and their also exists people who are lactose intolerant. In addition to this, the processed meat products are found to be a carcinogen, which increase the risks of colon or rectum cancer. Due to high cholesterol, there is always a risk of heart disease and diabetes. And many people are also allergic to sea foods. Moreover, the self life of such food is low and hence increases the storage and production cost. Today, the production and preparation of foods from animals requires more time and energy. On the other hand, plant based food is universally acceptable and are often easy to handle, produce, buy, and cook. Most of the protein rich foods from plant require less amount of time and energy to cook and due to this people readily switch to protein rich food of plant origin (beans, mushrooms).But, not all plant based food products are rich in proteins. In fact, the market is dominated by grain based products (Biscuits, chips, noodles, bread) where the volume of protein is comparatively less and the consumption of such products is massive which can be taken as a problem.

The solution

Let us imagine a world with a universal food rich in protein, easy to produce, store and cook, and affordable in price. The concept of UP Food (Universal Protein Food) focuses on these crucial areas. The idea of UP Food is to transform beans into benefits (health and economy). Firstly, UP Food products would be universally preferred as they will be produced from plants (beans). This help to solve the first problem of dual consumer preferences. As this concept is based on plant as a protein source, the health risks are almost null as compared to animal origin foods. Moreover, the natural essential substances like; fibre, iron present in beans would certainly enhance the quality of the proposed products and people of all age group can consume this product. Simple techniques can be used to maintain the self life of UP Foods. The price of beans , cost of storage , processing and product formation can be kept significantly low without affecting the quality of final products. This certainly minimizes the price of the product and be made available for the consumers in affordable price. As compared to the time and energy requirement, the UP Meals products would need lees time and energy to prepare and cook without compromising on the quality and health of the consumers. Some of the dominant grain products can be replaced by UP Foods ingredients to provide higher value of protein required by the human body. The UP Foods are prepared from selective beans (no soy). The products will be produced from roasted beans flour ( For instance , chickpeas). These flours would be channelised to produced beans soups , noodles and biscuits with long self life and high protein value . And, how about a power packet of 100 gram bean chips /flakes which contain additional sachet of spices and flavours to mix? Such chips/ flakes can be consumed as a chips when mixed with those flavoured spices or simply can be consumed with milk or hot water as a flakes. The proposed products would be significantly fat and gluten free, and are fortified with other natural nutrients as well. Hence, UP Foods mainly focuses on transforming beans into benefits with the above simple but effective concept. This could definitely play an important role to share proteins to the increasing population of the world in a healthy and most economic way. Let’s prove beans as a boon to the world.