F&D Heroes Issue 1

Food & Drink Hero:
Plant Pops
Anushi from Plant Pops, makes delicious, award-winning plant based snacks
that are good for you, the environment and the communities that create them.
The seeds are sustainably grown in Bihar, India and roasted with no artificial
flavourings or preservatives.
At Plant Pops, we make delicious, healthconscious,
plant-based snacks that are
good for you, the environment and the wider
community that create them.
but without any of those annoying bits
that get stuck in your teeth.
Our snacks are made from ancient grains
and seeds, inspired by ingredients that
have been eaten for centuries yet somehow
appear to have been overlooked by the
modern world.
Our initial range of Popped Lotus Seeds
is inspired by my childhood growing up in
India. Plant Pops come in three delicious
flavours: Himalayan Salt, Smoked Chilli
and Peanut Butter and were crowned Best
Snacking Innovation at the 2019 World Food
Innovation Awards 2019, only one week into
our launch!
I’ve always been a foodie but I came up with
the idea for Plant Pops after making popped
lotus seeds at home (just like my grandmother
and mother had done before) with a variety
of curious (sometimes improbable) flavour
combinations that I took into work to test on
my fellow KPMG work colleagues.
Popped lotus seeds are something we’ve
always eaten. Traditionally you buy
them plain in a big bag, and flavour them
yourselves at home, using anything from
curry leaves to turmeric and mustard seeds.
Fast forward 20 years after my parents
moved to the UK, and I found myself
working long hours and snacking all the time.
In no time I was bored of crisps and popcorn
which was all there was on offer. I started
taking in my (extremely) homemade popped
lotus seeds to save my colleagues’ sanity (&
my taste buds).
Everyone loved them, which is when I
knew we were onto a winner. They’re a
really familiar texture once you try them –
somewhere between popcorn and a rice cake,
My friend Ash was the first to get
hooked and he’s now co-founder of
our business. We must have tested
around 15 different flavours across
hundreds of people before deciding on
our three-strong starter line up (with
more to follow!).
Our mission is always to create
snacks that are good for you, good
for the environment and good for the
communities that create them. Every
pack sold helps us support Action
Village India, a charity that supports
farmers and their families in Northern
India, from where we source our
popped lotus seeds.
plantpopssnacks.com
@plantpopssnacks
@plantpopsnacks
23