For many Indian travellers, finding vegetarian food abroad can be a real challenge. Neha, a 38-year-old homemaker from Delhi, recalls, “My husband was always struggling to find reliable vegetarian food during his business trips abroad. There were times when he would skip meals just because he couldn’t find anything suitable to eat.”
The search for convenient, healthy, and satisfying meals while travelling can often turn into a nightmare. With long flights and unfamiliar locations, finding a meal that is both nutritious and comforting is not simple.
Whether it’s students living abroad, professionals on business trips, or even families away from home, the desire for a practical yet wholesome meal remains a difficult challenge. Traditional ready-to-eat meals are often loaded with preservatives, artificial additives, and synthetic flavours, making them not only hard on the digestive system but also contributing to a range of health issues. Many people are on the lookout for a product that feels like home, a meal that provides comfort, is nutritious and does not compromise on taste.
Amit and Shalu Murarka, a travel-loving couple from Kolkata, often struggled to find vegetarian food options during their trips abroad. While they were on a journey to Switzerland in 2016, they came across the concept of dehydrated food. Amit recalls, “We saw someone travelling with a ready-to-eat soup packet. He simply added water and started eating. He told us it was dehydrated food and he had been consuming it for almost four years.”
This discovery sparked an idea, leading them to create a solution that combined convenience with nutrition.
Birth of Spice Up Foods: Delivering healthy and home-cooked meals
Recognising the potential, the couple decided to turn their discovery into a solution that could help not only themselves but others as well. They set out to create Spice Up Foods, a brand focused on delivering preservative-free and home-cooked meals. Wondering how they make all this possible?
Amit’s background as a chartered financial analyst and Shalu’s experience in organising cookery workshops laid the foundation for this unique venture. With their passion for food and an understanding of business, they realised there was a massive demand for healthy, ready-to-eat meals that didn’t rely on preservatives. As Shalu tells The Better India, “We wanted to provide food that not only tasted like home but also maintained its quality and freshness for a long time without compromising on health.”
While the idea of dehydrated food had been around for some time, the couple soon realised that the technique they wanted to use, freeze-drying, was a whole different ballgame. Unlike the conventional method of dehydration, freeze-drying removes moisture from food without compromising its structure, texture, or nutritional value. “It’s the same technique used to preserve food for astronauts, ensuring they have nutritious meals while travelling in space for extended periods,” explains Amit.
The duo aims to bridge the gap between the convenience of ready-to-eat meals and the need for nutritious home meals that don’t compromise on taste. They decided to create meals using only natural ingredients, the kind you would find in a home kitchen. Every product, from dal-chawal to pav bhaji and schezwan fried rice, is carefully developed with the customer in mind.
Their journey began in 2018 with extensive research and development in freeze-drying techniques. Alongside Amit and Shalu, Amit’s sister, Madhu Goel, also became a part of the venture. By 2020, Spice Up Foods was producing small batches of their ready-to-eat meals, initially sending them to family and friends for feedback. The key was maintaining the taste and texture of the meals after freeze-drying. “Each batch was tested for quality, with rigorous checks to ensure that the meals were preservative-free and would last for months without spoiling,” says Amit.
Steps behind freeze-drying and its benefits
The factor that differentiates Spice Up Foods in the ready-to-eat market is its use of freeze-drying technology. So how does it work?
“The process begins with home cooks preparing meals using fresh ingredients, just like they would in their kitchens. These meals are then brought to our facility and frozen at a very low temperature, around -40°C, which helps preserve the food’s texture and structure. After freezing, the food is placed in a vacuum chamber where the ice within the food sublimates (turns from solid directly into vapour). This process removes the moisture from the food, leaving behind a light and dry product that can be rehydrated by simply adding hot water,” Shalu explains.
The dehydration temperature is adjusted based on the consistency of the food. “For example, chutneys are dried at a much lower temperature than, say, dal or rajma. This control over the process ensures that each dish maintains the same texture, taste, and nutritional value as it would if it were freshly cooked. As compared to traditional dehydration techniques, which can extract as much as 92 or 96 percent of the water content, freeze-drying removes more than 99 percent of the water, so we decided to choose this technique,” she adds.
The duo spent approximately four years researching the optimal temperatures for the freeze-drying technique. During this period, they focused solely on delivering within their local area and were not yet catering to a wider audience. In April 2024, after perfecting the consistency and taste and gaining valuable insights from numerous rounds of feedback, they launched a website to begin accepting orders across India.
They also invested time and effort into sourcing the right freeze-drying technology to meet their specific needs. While it is not a new concept, particularly in industries like pharmaceuticals (where powdered antibiotics are prepared using freeze-drying technology) and space food (where astronauts rely on it for long-term meals), it had never been customised for the ready-to-eat food category.
Amit explains, “We started researching in the Indian market for our freeze-drying machine after exploring various options in China. The machine we have is custom-made according to our requirements, specifically for our meals.” The couple realised that the existing models for freeze-drying food were not tailored for the kind of ready-to-eat meals they wanted to create.
To make this work, they had to work closely with the manufacturers of freeze-drying machines. “We had to ask the person who makes these machines to customise it based on our needs. We gave him specific measurements, temperature settings, tray sizes, and other precise details,” says Amit.
The co-founders connected with several suppliers for key components of the machine, including the drying chamber, vacuum pump, heat source, condenser, and trays. He continues, “We connected with around four or five different people for all the parts of the machine. Once everything came together, we had a freeze-drying machine built specifically for us, with all the right settings to preserve the quality of our food.”
Helping homemakers become financially independent
One of the key aspects of Spice Up Foods’ success is its collaboration with homemakers. The couple, along with their co-founder Madhu, wanted to empower homemakers, especially those who were looking to make use of their culinary skills while also earning an income. As Amit shares, “When we started, we were cooking from our kitchen. My mother and Shalu would mostly prepare the meals. But soon, we realised that we couldn’t scale that way. That’s when we decided to bring in home cooks and help them turn their passion for cooking into a profitable business.”
“Whenever we place a particular order with a home cook, we thoroughly inspect the ingredients and vegetables before sending it to them,” says Shalu. Once the food is prepared, it’s transferred into steel containers, properly sealed, and transported to their unit for further processing.
Home cooks with their own transport are encouraged to deliver meals directly to the unit. If not, the team arranges pick-ups through Swiggy Genie or Porter. Amit says, “Our operations team manages everything from pick-up to delivery. For larger quantities, like three kg of rajma, if the home cook doesn’t have suitable containers, we provide huge plastic boxes for them to fill and send back to us.”
The startup offers two services to bring the warmth of home-cooked meals to customers across India. The first focuses on recipe-driven meals, where home cooks follow detailed recipes to ensure consistency. Shalu explains, “We have worked hard to ensure that the recipes are consistent. We send our home cooks the recipe, and they must follow it step-by-step to ensure the right taste. We also provide measurement beakers to make it easier for them to follow the quantities precisely.”
The second service caters to families in Kolkata who want to send homemade meals to children studying abroad. Amit shares, “We freeze-dry the meals sent by customers and pack them so their children can enjoy a taste of home even when they are far away. It’s a personal and heartfelt way for parents to look after their children when they are separated by distance.”
Both services follow strict quality checks. Before cooking, ingredients are verified for freshness, and meals are prepared in small batches to maintain authenticity. Shalu adds, “We don’t use any machinery in preparing the food. It’s all done by our home cooks, and once we are out of stock, we start production of the next batch.”
Currently, the company works with around 10 home cooks who benefit from flexible hours, working from home, and a fair income.
For homemakers like Alka, in her 50s, joining the startup has been life-changing. A passionate cook, she spent years honing her skills through workshops. When her sons moved to Bengaluru for work, she found herself with free time.
“Joining Spice Up Foods allowed me to channel my passion for cooking into something that not only brought me immense satisfaction but also gave me financial independence,” she says. “For the first time, I found myself standing on my own feet as I could take care of my needs without asking for money.”
More than just the financial stability, the work has given her a sense of purpose. Her husband, who always encouraged her to do something for herself, is proud of her achievements. “His pride, combined with my accomplishments, has made the entire journey even more rewarding,” she adds.
Serving healthy and delicious meals across India
The startup operates with the highest standards of quality. It is FSSAI certified, assuring that all food is prepared and packaged according to strict food safety guidelines. Every batch of food is tested to guarantee there are no contaminants, and the company follows an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for every aspect of production. The ingredients are sourced from trusted suppliers, and all meals are packaged with care to ensure freshness.
Since launching its website in early 2024, Spice Up Foods has grown rapidly, earning Rs 30 lakh in revenue and serving over 15,000 meals across India and internationally. The meals, which range from Rs 180 to Rs 230, are available in single-serving tubs, and the company uses Blue Dart for domestic deliveries. For international deliveries, they connect their customers to DHL and Ship Global for shipment.
The tubs come with a 100-ml beaker to make sure the right amount of water is added, and a spoon is provided for easy eating. As Shalu points out, “Our goal is to make it as simple as possible for people to have a healthy meal anywhere in the world. Whether you are at home, on a plane, or in a remote location, you can have a home-cooked meal ready in a couple of minutes.”
Neha, whose husband once struggled with finding vegetarian food while travelling, found the perfect solution. “The best part about the brand is their tubs, as they are convenient and light enough to be carried across the globe. The food always tastes homemade, and each time we have purchased it, it has been consistently delicious. My husband now always carries a few tubs with him, and whenever he feels hungry, he simply adds hot water. Within just seven minutes, his meal is ready, and I no longer have to worry about him going without a proper meal when he is travelling. The peace of mind I have gained knowing that he is never left hungry is everything I needed.”
“We believe that the heart of good food lies in the hands of those who cook with love. Homemakers bring that special touch to every meal, and with our preservative-free ready-to-eat meals, we are providing a connection to home,” concludes Shalu. As the brand continues to grow, the co-founders are planning to include a ready-to-eat snacks range as well.
Edited by Megha Chowdhury; All pictures courtesy Amit Murarka
