Viana Beans produces roasted chickpea chips made from whole chickpeas. The company’s goal is to support healthier lifestyles through permissible snacking. Meatless Movement recently spoke with one of the founders, Yashna Harjani.
Tell us about yourself please
I have always had a passion for healthier food & beverage innovations
Yashna Harjani
As a nutritionist who has worked in and consulted with the food and beverage industry for over 25 years, I have always had a passion for healthier food & beverage innovations. Two years ago, I left PepsiCo to come back home to Singapore and to rediscover my path and calling in life. And that’s when I realized, that I wanted to set up my own start-up. I knew it had to be a guilt-free health food or beverage, which would help people meet their daily food and nutrient goals.
As I had worked with Michelle Nunis on the nutrition portfolio in PepsiCo, I discussed this start-up idea with her. Michelle had also recently left the corporate world and was on her own wellness journey. As we spoke about our vision and ambitions, we discovered a like-mindedness to offer permissible snacking through tasty snack offerings in support of healthy lifestyles. Michelle decided to come on board. This was fantastic, as with her more than 22 years of Commercial Marketing and Branding capabilities, we now have all the tenets of a strong business.
With both of us passionately on board, we brought to life, Viana Pte. Ltd. in Aug 2020, with the goal to ‘Make Every Bite Count’.
Why Viana Beans
Viana Pte. Ltd.’s core business are healthy snacks. Our current focus is to educate consumers on bean-based snacks. Beans are a very valuable source of protein and fibre in consumer’s diets, and it also supports the current plant-based food trend. More recently, researchers have also determined that beans contain important health-promoting components including antioxidants. In recognizing the health benefits of beans, global organizations are recommending making half cup a habit, at least 3 times a week.
roasted chickpea chips (classic) roasted chickpea chips (peri peri)
Our snacks are made from real beans, which are roasted and through my capability as a nutritionist, Viana Beans has done its best to limit fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugar in our products.
We are all on the same journey to adopt healthier lifestyles.
As a start-up, we currently co-manufacture our snacks, through co-manufacturing facilities in India and China.
Our current range is a Roasted Chickpea Chip range. Our range of products are made from whole chickpeas which are soaked, boiled, pressed into chips, and then roasted. We currently offer two flavours, that is salted which is described as Classic and Peri Peri. Coming within the year is our new flavour, Tangy Spice.
In keeping with our mission to support healthier lifestyles, our Roasted Chickpea Chips can be eaten as a meal addition as well as a snack. To enhance the protein and fibre to your everyday meals, just add Viana Beans Roasted Chickpea Chips to your porridge, soups, and salads. Through this addition your meals will have a nice crunch. In salad, adding our beans, can help complete a salad into a full meal. If you are stressed for time, all you need to do, is to chop up some vegetables and toss them up with roasted chickpea chips and a dressing.
Our Classic flavour is a simple addition to everyday meals. As the product is salted, add into salads, soups and porridge to enhance every bite. It contains no added oil.
Our Peri Peri flavour has a spicy kick that is good for snacking and enhancing everyday meals for a tastier mouthfeel. It contains 1g of sunflower oil in each 50g or ¼ cup serve.
Our new flavour Tangy Spice, which will be launched within the year balances sweet, tangy and spicy ensuring a flavourful bite. It contains 1.2g of sunflower oil in each 50g or ¼ cup serve.
Our brand name ‘Viana’, is from the latin word ‘vivus’ which means alive
Permissible snacking in support of healthier lifestyles has never been easier, and we want our consumers to ‘feel or come alive’ with every nutritious and healthy bite of Viana Beans.
For human and environment sustainability reasons, consumers are adopting flexitarian and or vegetarian or vegan lifestyles.
This trend is going to contribute to a demand for plant-based food options.
Beans are a natural plant-based food and consumers will need a tasty convenient variety of bean-based options to meet and enjoy their protein intake.
We will promote the right vegetarian / vegan diets by highlighting bean benefits through Social Media posts and through live events on healthy eating and cooking tips for vegetarians.
What’s next for Viana
In less than 6 months from our launch, we have had strong consumer ratings for our products online as well as social media sharing from our consumers on the interesting ways in which they are consuming our product as a meal addition.
We believe in supporting our consumers, as we are consumers ourselves
We are also excited and grateful for the acceptance of our products across our neighbourhood stores.
Our current products are Roasted Chickpea Chips. Within this year, we will be expanding our portfolio to include a new bean range.
By the end of this year, we will also expand our portfolio by introducing a new bean range with a wide variety of flavours.
We are continuously developing salad recipes and a healthy range of everyday recipes using our chickpea chips.
In understanding this, it is our commitment to stay focused on providing our consumers with tasty nutritious snacks that will allow for permissible snacking, ultimately enhancing the enjoyment and journey towards healthier lifestyles.