Prof Kavya Dashora of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, has won the first prize at Innovate4SDG contest organised by United Nation Development Program (UNDP) Accelerator Lab India for creating a plant-based mock egg.
The mock egg has been termed as a perfect innovation by UNDP that could help meet the two targets of ‘zero hunger’ and ‘well being’ under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.
The award comprises a cash prize worth Rs 3.7 lakhs and was conferred by Ms Christiane Hieronymus, Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi and Prof K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India.
Prof Kavya told media that “the mock egg has been developed from very simple farm based crop proteins, which not only looks and tastes like egg but also very close in nutritional profile to a poultry egg.”
The IIT Delhi team headed by Prof Kavya is also going to come up with plant based alternatives for mutton, fish, chicken, etc. Mock eggs and meat are a great substitute to animal-derived products, besides being cleaner and cruelty free. These products have zero cholesterol and are also gluten free. As they are completely made from plants, there is also no risk of transmission of zoonotic diseases to workers. This is crucial at a time when the whole world is struggling to emerge from catastrophic effects of Coronavirus.
