Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia announce plant-based meat venture, ImagineMeats

Bollywood celebrity couple Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh on Monday announced their venture focused on plant-based meat products. The company named Imagine Meats will launch a number of products for the Indian palate through various retail channels in the coming months, reports LiveMint.

Check out the announcement here

Imagine Meats is working in partnership with the Indian arm of the global non-profit organisation The Good Food Institute (GFI) that promotes plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy and eggs.

The couple, in an interview to The Indian Express, spoke about their decision to venture into the alternative, plant-based meat space. Speaking to the publication, Genelia said that when they first turned vegetarian they realised they did not really miss meat but rather the taste of it.

"We started to wonder if there was a way for us to do all the right things for animals, for the environment, but also get the taste of meat," she said, adding that last year they went to the Good Food Conference in the USA, and were amazed to find out that the idea was already in progress on across the world.

Riteish revealed that during their to the USA, Genelia had taken plant-based meats and made kheema with it which tasted like the “perfect kheema” he had been craving for the past 2-3 years. “We started trying to figure out a way to make plant-based meat that would cater to Indian tastes and that’s how the journey began.”

"We want Imagine Meats to be the choice for anybody seeking the taste of meat, without the guilt of environmental and public health impacts - just as it will be for our own family. It is our mission to make the world kinder and safer for our children, and this is a great start,” said Genelia in a statement.