“In an exclusive conversation Mr. Yash Parashar, Founder and CEO of Mama Nourish, speaks about their brand’s inception, inspired by a personal experience that highlighted the challenge of preserving traditional, nutritious recipes in modern life. Mama Nourish offers LadduBars, modern formats of homemade laddus made with natural ingredients and free from preservatives. These bars, inspired by authentic Indian recipes, cater to health-conscious consumers with their nutrient-dense profiles. Observing a market shift towards health and heritage, Yash notes the growing demand for healthy snacks and food label literacy. Mama Nourish ensures food safety with its FSSAI-approved facility and meets global standards, maintaining a competitive edge with unique products and sustainable practices. Through this approach, Mama Nourish blends tradition with contemporary convenience, preserving India’s rich culinary heritage.
Could you elaborate on the inception of Mama Nourish? What motivated the creation of the company, and what fundamental mission guides your brand today?
The beginning of Mama Nourish is rooted in a deep understanding about India’s rich culinary heritage and the contemporary lives of urban working professionals. The idea began with a personal experience of Yash Parashar, the Founder and CEO of Mama Nourish, and his wife Apruva back in 2021.
Immediately following the birth of Yash and Apurva’s Son, both their parents came to Mumbai and Yash’s mother and Apurva’s mother prepared traditional and nutritious recipes like gond ladoos, harira for her. It was when both parents left, Apruva and Yash realized a stark reality. Reality, that we as a generation are incapacitated to replicate these healthy traditional recipes and even less capable of passing the baton to next generations. This led them to the realization that “grandma’s legacy is endangered”.
To validate if this was his only personal insight or an underlying pain for many, Yash started speaking to his colleagues and friends. He and his college friend Kunal, who too shared very strong similar views, then went on to conduct a survey, the findings of which were revealing. The survey revealed 98% working professionals surveyed shared similar sentiments, believing that they were the last generation to benefit from their grandmothers’ culinary wisdom and may not be able to pass the baton. Yash’s mother got extremely passionate about solving the product problem and invented a form factor which modern generation may be able to take to office on the go. Yash and Kunal worked on the business fundamentals and thus the trio laid a firm foundation of what turned into Mama Nourish.
Absolutely fundamental in this journey was the conviction of the two friends Kunal Goel and Yash along with Mrs. Usha Shrotriya who persistently invented LadduBars. Mama Nourish has been founded with a mission to rediscover India’s traditional, nourishing recipes in modern convenient forms for generations to come, to preserve the rich culinary heritage of our country for generations to come.
Please provide a comprehensive overview of the products offered by Mama Nourish. How do your energy bars and other snacks cater to the needs of health- conscious consumers?
Mama Nourish, makes LadduBars. LadduBars are modern convenient formats of traditional homemade nutritious grandmother’s Laddus. However, Bar is only a convenient format to bring nutritious ladoos to the modern world on the go, as the LadduBar Mini also serves the same purpose. Beyond the healthy traditions in modern convenient formats all products by Mama Nourish Laddubars have 3 USPs.
- They are inspired by authentic traditional Indian recipes learnt from a real grandmother from different part of the country, celebrated on front of pack
- They are made of only kitchen ingredients, absolutely free from of any kind of preservatives, colors, additives, flavors.
- They are naturally nutrient dense with no refined sugar primarily sweetened by whole natural dates and contain up-to 70% dry fruits and dates.
- Mama Nourish offers 5 different varieties of LadduBars,
- Dry Fruit Instant Energy LadduBar: Timeless nutritious Mewa laddu reimagined in a modern, convenient format, crafted with the finest ingredient
- Millet LadduBars: Rediscovering rich flavours, from nutritious culinary heritage of south and western India nostalgic and earthly taste of Ragi and Bajra (Finger and Pearl millets), meticulously refined to satisfy the most discerning palates. These gluten-free treats contain no added sugar and come with a milder sweetness
- Gond-Dryfruit LadduBar: Made from cherished traditional postpartum recipes passed down through generations. Called Gondh, Gundar, and Thumma Jinguru, this delicacy was specifically a miracle for a new mother and loved by everyone. This nourishing treat gets its crunch from the raisin of gum arabic tree (Babul or kikar) known for its amazing health benefits.
- Methi-Dryfruit LadduBar: Symphony of rich flavors and nutritions that celebrate culinary heritage of Western India, with a touch of modern sophistication. Made with fenugreek and known for its therapeutic benefits, especially for new mothers with grandma’s wisdom. It’s a treasured recipe from the Saurashtra region and western India, which includes today’s Maharashtra and Gujarat
- Kamarkas LadduBar: a harmony of flavors and health that celebrate the golden years of life with a touch of modern sophistication. This first-of-its-kind nutrition bar is a modern reincarnation of the timeless Kamarkas Laddus from sindh region of India, loaded with nuts and sweetened with just two dates, high in fiber, nutrient-dense, and diabetic-friendly. Kamarkas is a super-food red-raisin of the Palash tree also known as Flame of Forest.
LadduBars are naturally nutrient dense and good ingredients take care of nutrition. Each Bar is rich in fiber, source of protein, source of Iron, and calcium, potassium, zinc making them adored as a healthy snacking alternative to almost everything.
What are the current trends you observe in the Indian snacks market and how you see the scope of healthy snacks?
The customers today are more conscious of health and hence the healthy snacks are higher in demand. In India, the food label literacy is also on the rise due to social media campaigns, efforts of health conscious brands and government. This further expands the market for healthy snacks.
We also see a general trend towards pride in our heritage and looking back to our roots, promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.
What distinguishes Mama Nourish from other brands in the market? How do your products seamlessly blend traditional nutritional recipes with the demands of contemporary urban lifestyles?
Mama Nourish distinguishes itself by honoring thousands of years old Indian culinary wisdom, passed down through generations of mothers and grandmothers. Our recipes come directly from real grandmothers and hence are highly nutritious with homely taste. There could hardly be anything morse time tested than these timeless recipes.
With healthiest farm ingredients we convert these recipes into modern convenient formats so they are convenient and can be made available and suitable to contemporary urban lifestyle on the go. With 100% natural ingredients, free from preservatives, artificial colors, and refined sugar, we cater the needs of health conscious customers by making each of our products using only clean ingredients from a grandma’s kitchen.
We also ensure that the products pass the test of modern nutrition scientifically as well, our Bars are naturally nutrition dense as they contain upto 65-77% Dry Fruits and seeds. We do not use any kind of refined sugar. Wherever we use jaggery the usage is limited to less than 2g per bar. So our Bars are super healthy as well.
How does Mama Nourish ensure food safety and comply with regulations in your production process? Are there any specific quality standards or certifications you adhere to in ensuring food safety?
We use 100% natural ingredients, and all our products are manufactured in a state-of-the-art facility in Navi Mumbai. This facility is FSSAI approved and meets global standards, such as USFDA and BRC ‘A’ certifications, adhering to the highest safety and hygiene standards both nationally and globally.
How does Mama Nourish maintain a competitive edge in the health and wellness snack market? What strategies do you employ to differentiate your offerings from those of your competitors?
As we discussed, our products are based on only traditional and nutritious grandma recipes with an added modern convenience. As a health conscious brand we use only natural kitchen ingredients, following the principle that if your grandma use an ingredient we would not use it. These are appreciated by customers.
Additionally our product has around 5 times less carbon footprint compared to similar products in the market. We promote sustainability by using environmentally friendly ingredients like millets.