The Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO) has launched the Plant Factor Campaign, a food innovation challenge to support the shift of Indian consumers towards the use of plant-based life and to raise awareness among them about health and nutrition. As a result, they have extend the backing to Rs 20 Lakh for the right plant-based alternatives for meat products. Applications are open to students, restaurants, researchers, businesses, and entrepreneurs to participate.
FIAPO is known to be one of India’s leading animal protection bodies. The FIAPO seeks to bring together all animal protection organizations and to act as a resource and information center to exchange ideas, build expertise, and strengthen the movement of animal rights. This organization has about 160 members, 200 supporters, and 1,000 activists in more than 70 cities across India.
Talking about the challenge they face, Varda Mehrotra,the Exe cutive Director of FIAPO, said, “A kilogram of meat is about 30 times more demanding in the environment in terms of water, greenhouse gas emissions and a kilogram of plant protein. Nowadays, this has become popular in most countries, and is even understood by popular non-vegetarian fast-food giants like Nando’s, Burger King, McDonald’s, which made them introduce vegan burgers and other vegan recipes into their menu.
To participate in the Plant Factor challenge, all applicants must have or create a ready-to-market, fully plant-based (without any non-animal ingredients such as mushrooms that are acceptable) functional food products. In this respect, the product should also have a stable shelf life with a similar taste and a nutritional profile to that of the meat which is expected to be a viable replacement. The winning product wins Rs 10 lakh, as well as the 1st and 2nd runners, will receive Rs 7 lakh and 3 lakh respectively. The amount is intended to help them to scale up their production and also to make use of the market strategies for the product concerned.
The call to start receiving the application from 4 September 2020 will be closed by 2 October 2020. All the pending reviews of the Internal Selection Committee indicated that 8 to 10 applications would be finalized and that they would be finalized by 19 October 2020 and that the grand final would be finalized by 19 February 2021. The selected participants will receive the FIAPO training, mentoring, financial and network support from India’s top food and business experts. In the final round, these teams must present to the panel, their products and would be judged based on the market readiness of their products. After geeting selected, they will also have a great opportunity to campaign for their product under the FIAPO’s flagship.
