BENGALURU, India, April 3, 2024 – Fresh Ground Ventures (https://freshground.in) a Bengaluru based Direct to Consumer start-up announced that it has been granted a patent for its invention in processing and grinding of spices. The innovation allows each spice order to be ground fresh while ensuring that the spice powder retains its natural taste, colour, flavour and aroma.
Explaining the current challenges in the Spice Industry and the need for change, Yogeel Manwani, Founder & CEO of FreshGround, said, “Grinding of spices needs multi stage Industrial grade machinery, spice grinding is hence done in large factories away from customers. Not only does factory grinding destroy spice’s natural taste, colour, flavour and aroma, the centralized process has zero traceability that has led to rampant adulteration, use of the lowest spice grades for grinding, intermixing of variants and most importantly what reaches customers is not fresh, it is ground at least 3 months, usually over 6 months before it is available for purchase, during this time the spice has lost most of its pungency.”
He adds, “We have worked on finding a solution to this problem for 3 years and were finally granted a patent for our invention earlier last month. Whole spice is passed through FreshGround’s proprietary process that not only brings it to a grind-ready state but also removes any contaminants, impurities and microbes. Ultra-small batches of 100 – 500 gram of this processed spice can be ground to edible granularity using very small machines while retaining its natural flavour, colour, taste and aroma. The solution is scalable globally and even today we are able to grind each order fresh and deliver across India. Consumers get high quality, single origin, unblended, non-hybrid & freshly ground spices every time they purchase. Our brand showcases the raw materials used, establishing transparency, authenticity and most importantly, promoting our Native Indian Variants of spices”.
India’s spice industry has seen little or no innovation since the last 70 years. Manwani believes the application of FreshGround’s patent to the Spice business will fundamentally change the centralized grinding set up that is in place in the industry today to decentralized grinding, closer to the customer with core & visible advantages of freshness, traceability, no adulteration and guarantee of better flavour, aroma and taste.
FreshGround’s Co-Founder Ramakrishna Melgiri who is based in Byadgi, India’s second largest Chilli Market, adds, “India has a very rich spice heritage, fresh grinding in a transparent manner and a Direct to Consumer model also helps drive differentiation and demand for India’s native spice varieties such as Byadgi Chillies (KDL & Dabbi), Salem/Rajapuri Turmeric, Rajasthani Coriander, Jeera from Rajasthan/ Gujarat, Lakdong Turmeric from the North East and many more local variants that have unique and distinct flavours that our spice rich country is known for. Most of India’s local variants are dying today due to commoditization of the spice business and rampant use of Hybrid varieties.. What we sell at FreshGround is Single Origin and Native Indian Spices, this is the equivalent of Single Malts in the Whiskey business. Through our brand, we aim to protect and grow demand for India’s native spices.”
The Direct to Consumer market in India was valued at around $12 billion in 2022, and is projected to surpass $60 billion by 2027. Within this, the Food & Beverages segment has a 27% share driven by young buyers moving to healthy, responsible and reliable foods.
FreshGround was awarded the Idea2 PoC Elevate grant by Government of Karnataka in 2021 under the Start-up Karnataka mission. “The grant from the Government of Karnataka helped us validate the FreshGround idea and to operationalize the innovation. We are now in active talks with established players in the Spice business as well as Investors to help take this innovation to the masses” says Manwani.
About FreshGround:
FreshGround is a Bengaluru Based Start-up, it’s a patented process helps it grind and deliver each spice order on-demand. The Company currently supplies topmost grade, single origin, unadulterated and freshly ground spices direct to consumers across India.
