Plant-based chicken is coming to a downtown Boloco thanks to a Techstars Boston startup.
High Time Foods’ first product is plant-based minced chicken that is shelf stable and preservative free, said co-founder Aakash Shah. The product will be available as a protein option in the Boloco at 50 Congress St. starting Friday, Aug. 5.
Shah co-founded High Time Foods in 2021 with fellow Babson College MBA student Damian Felchlin. The pair were trying to eat more plant-based foods while out at restaurants but kept coming across the same options.
“Either you’re offered the same salad or the Beyond or the Impossible burger. There are only so many burgers I could eat,” Shah said.
The co-founders set out to make a plant-based protein that could be used in a variety of cuisines.
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Shah said water is extracted from the minced protein, which ensures a shelf life of one year without preservatives or refrigeration. The product is manufactured in New England, and most of the ingredients are sourced from the U.S., Shah said.
“I wanted to make sure that the supply chain is super tight. We’re trying to be a sustainable company. I didn’t want ingredients to be flying from all across the world,” Shah said.
To use the chicken substitute, chefs just need to add oil and water. The minced protein can then be formed into a patty, mixed in with fried rice or added to the top of a pizza.
“There are some fantastic products that are out there. Great tasting products. But I would say it’s mainly just pre-formed, pre-molded products,” Shah said. “What we’re doing is we’re providing the ingredient. We’re providing chicken. And the chef or the restaurant that we would sell this to, they can do whatever they would like to with this.”
High Time Foods is also trialing other products, Shah said, like pork, beef and a dry egg solution.
The company is part of the Techstars Boston summer cohort. Shah credits this program for giving High Time Foods industry connections, fundraising skills and advice on scaling.
The startup has raised $355,000 from Sustainable Food Ventures, Techstars and several angel investors. Shah and Felchlin have used some of these funds to bring on two additional team members and summer interns.
Before coming to the U.S. for graduate school, Shah managed kitchens in India. He witnessed the waste of food, energy and water in the food industry juxtaposed with communities struggling with food insecurity and clean water access. Helping restaurants reduce that waste with a longer-lasting product is one of his main goals with High Time Foods. Over the next few months, the company’s focus will be on selling its product to Boston restaurants.
The startup is also looking to make an impact in food-insecure communities. Shah said they’ve had conversations with disaster relief organizations and nonprofits about bringing their product to food insecure regions.
“The possibilities of this can be bigger than just being placed at restaurants. This is protein. It’s heavy, it’s tasty, it’s nutritional,” Shah said. “So many places in the world have no access to refrigeration and in some cases don’t have access to electricity. This can be placed in any of those places.”
