‘We aim to make everyone’s relationship with food healthy’

Upasana Kaura

Sattvic diet is a way to promote and keep ‘sattva’ – intended to cultivate a calm, clear and compassionate mind. Since what we eat affects our physical and mental well-being, sattvik food is the best next alternative to be a part of our life, more so considering the pandemic we are living with. To bring pure and delicious sattvic food at your doorstep, Amit Juneja and the devotees of ISKCON, Bangalore started Annakoot in June 2020. We speak to Juneja, CEO-MD, Annakoot for more insight on the same. Excerpts:

 How and when did you decide to come up with Annakoot? How many outlets are there, as of now, and in which all states?
FMCG is one of the fastest-growing endeavours in the world. It is the food that we love, intertwined with our occasions, gestures, and all kinds of emotions in our life. Be it a multi-national company to a small indigenous startup in a village, everyone is competing with research, history and technology to make something tasty and good for health for people. Even our homely Indian cuisine is now a complete product, but the level at which people can make something delicious is not easy to gauge. Every product in the market is not there to be safe and healthy for people but to be the best against others.
Based on the thought that our body’s mental and physical composition is determined by what we consume, Annakoot by ISKCON Bangalore was a venture that believed in treating the body as simple as a temple and feeding it only good. We believe a sattvic food lifestyle should be there in the market, and soon people will realize its importance because it’s a human truth from the oldest of the book that will help achieve a state of mental and physical purity. We currently have two successful outlets in Delhi, and our products are also available on all e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and our official website.

Sattvic lifestyle or even choosing some part of what they consume to be healthy is always a hard choice. You can always walk into any restaurant that is easily accessible and indulge in an unhealthy meal to your heart’s content

What sort of investment went into it?
We started with an investment of almost Rs 100 crore, and are happy that we are able to make people aware about the food they eat, and also making them follow sattvic way of life.

Tell us about the challenges you came across…
The main challenge was the idea of pushing something healthy in the essentials market, targeting the right audience, and finding that niche of customers who didn’t mind going the extra mile for a healthier alternatives to their daily food. The sattvic diet is part of our history, but it was very new for most people as it is not an enjoyable one. It doesn’t have anything to its extremes in contrast to the current lifestyle of meat, salty, spicy, oily food, which instantly gives you a colossal stimulus-response. But thankfully, during the pandemic, people shifted their focus towards something healthy in which they should have to just minimally compromise with the type of food that has been part of their whole life.

How much is the acceptance of sattvic food, particularly in a scenario where even vegetarians are scoffed at?
The sattvic market does get a fair amount of ridicule from people looking at it from a distance. Sattvic lifestyle or even choosing some part of what they consume to be healthy is always a hard choice. You can always walk into any restaurant that is easily accessible and indulge in an unhealthy meal to your heart’s content. It’s about balancing and unlearning the idea of happiness you have become accustomed to for attaining a long-term physical, mental, and spiritual happiness that you don’t even think is real.

What sort of growth have you witnessed since came up with your first outlet?
Considerable. People have turned their minds to using the sattvic food we have been serving. In addition, the pandemic gave the sattvic lifestyle a boost, as people started focusing on making their bodies healthier, right from their food choices to workout regimes.

What kind of future do you see for sattvik food?
We are looking to have outlets across each Indian state, delivery to restaurants and clients, domestic and abroad, and selling via e-commerce platforms within the next five years. We believe we will be able to make everyone’s relationship with food a whole lot more succulent, healthy and satisfying.

Tell us about your hot-selling items…
The hot-selling products of Annakoot are namkeen cereals and masalas. Changing someone’s snacking habits is an easier way to get into their kitchen and minds instead of expecting them to overhaul their eating habits completely. A gradual shift in their diets has a longer-lasting impact with fewer people who go back to the unhealthy lifestyle.