James Joseph wins National Award for his Jackfruit Revolution

James Joseph of Kerala wins National Start-up Award under the Food category for making and selling jackfruit in powder form.

The start-up invented a flour from green jackfruit to control blood sugar and the product received a patent this year. "We sincerely hope this award will take us one step closer to our mission of turning every jackfruit in India to control India's diabetes epidemic by working with the central government to fortify wheat flour with green jackfruit flour like we fortified salt with iodine", said James Joseph, founder of jackfruit365.

A fibre-rich fruit often used as a replacement for rice and wheat in Kerala, jackfruit has many nutritional benefits, James said. Its high potassium content helps reduce high blood pressure. The fruit also enables the human body to better absorb iron, helping in preventing and curing anaemia. It is also high on antioxidants and flavonoids means that it helps fight cancer.

According to James, Dr Kalam inspired him to prepare the flour. James recalls the interaction with Dr Kalam, “He remained silent for three minutes and then told me to find a way to include jackfruit in people’s meal without changing their eating habits. He promised me to help market it after I came up with a solution. Unfortunately, he had passed away. But his words stayed with me, and after nearly five years of experiments and testing, green flour was ready”.

“I started consuming the flour along with my medication but soon realised that two tablets and flour were lowering my readings. Three months into the diet, both my HbA1c and tablet consumption reduced. It has been four months now since I stopped the medication and I am only sticking to flour” - Vinu, a diabetic patient tells.