Is India ready for faux meat?

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Editor's note: Nearly five years after Abhishek Sinha started GoodDot, one of India’s earliest plant-based meat startups, he knew he needed to do more than market his products online. He realized that he had to get his faux meat products to the masses. And, to do that, he needed to hit the road. So, last week, the CEO of the Udaipur-based company set out on a 1,800-km road trip from Rajasthan to Bengaluru. The idea was simple yet tough—sell his flagship ready-to-cook Unmutton Dhaba Curry Kit to nearly 30 highway dhabas and restaurants that cater to the mass market and may have never even heard of mock meat.  To his surprise, the feedback was positive. “Our experiment paid off. Now I know plant-based meat can eventually reach the masses,” says Sinha. Sinha’s GoodDot is hardly the first company attempting to make mock meat a mass product. Over the past couple of years, mock meat has visibly entered the Indian food ecosystem. Of the 50 startups currently building smart protein products (which include plant-based meat, alternative protein supplements and plant-based dairy substitutes) in …