From multilingual food labels to a mass product, Food Pharmer aims to take a bigger bite

Revant Himatsingka

Popular influencer, or rather de-influencer, Revant Himatsingka, aka Food Pharmer who has debunked many misleading food labels, recently launched his new brand while cooking up a new recipe to reach the masses.

He started his new label Only What's Needed (OWN), with around 10 languages and will be expanding to more to go deeper into the market. And to be in every kitchen Himatsingka also plans to launch mass products.

"In the next four-five years, I will be making things like a biscuit, which is a much more mass product than a whey protein. It's easier to convince someone who is having a three rupees biscuit to have a Rs 10-rupee biscuit than to convince consumers to buy a Rs 2,700-rupee product like whey protein," Himatsingka told Moneycontrol.

Expensive affair

Under OWN, Himatsingka last week launched whey protein priced at Rs 2,799 which is more expensive than many brands, but the influencer says it's the high cost of quality raw materials that is making the product expensive. The product displays price breakdown including Rs 1,515 for raw materials, Rs 244 for manufacturing and packaging, Rs 180 for warehousing and shipping, among other costs. The label mentions profit before tax of Rs 152. 

Listing on e-commerce platforms will reduce some shipping and raw material costs, he said, adding that currently he is buying raw materials at a more expensive rate because the scale of order is small.

"Right now, people are nervous to sell to me. They don't know how much I will sell. So, they are giving me a very bad price. However, the quick commerce and the e-commerce guys charge a lot. My profit after tax is 5 percent and if I have to give Amazon 20 percent, it is not going to be feasible."

Multilingual labels

While the back of the product displays pricing, the front gives a breakdown of the ingredients used.

"One of the most common problems people have with food labels is the font size being too small. The second problem is that the nutrition label is often hidden in the back and that it's only in English," he said.

The whey protein packages have QR codes that display the label ingredients in around 10 languages currently.

"We should have at least 30-40 languages in the next few months so that nutrition labels can be read by everyone. When I started Label Padhega India (India will read labels) it was for everyone. It was not only for people who know English. We will now have an audio version. The label is also available in Braille. We are trying to make labels more accessible."

The influencer noted that adding different language labels on the product was an operational challenge. "I could have added labels in English and Hindi and the state language potentially. But that is a big operational challenge and very expensive. Then we came up with the QR code idea with the code printed in the front. We also spoke to some experts in each language and asked them to translate each word of the label."

Bigger bite

In the first phase of product launch, the influencer sold 12,000 whey protein packs and is now preparing for the next batch. "They are almost sold out. I had to put up an announcement that we are restricting the sale of two packs at a time. We will have to increase quantities. In around three weeks, the second batch will happen."

He said that the label and ingredients in the front of the product with a pie chart is clicking with the consumers. "If every single food product in the country had a pie chart describing in what amount all ingredients are used in the product, it would revolutionise the way we eat food."

But Himatsingka does not have plans for rapid scale up. "We don't have enough funds to rapidly expand. It is only enough to start one SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), maybe two-three SKUs. But we cannot create many products and compete with the leaders in the space."

He is working on new flavours of whey protein.  "I organised voting last week for my next step and people voted for flavours like coffee, unflavoured and plant-based protein," he said.