Dabbawalas have a long history in Mumbai. While they may appear to be merely delivering food, they are a vital and significant component of Mumbai's identity as a city. They provide hot and fresh lunch to the city's growing workforce. Amid this, a startup in London has launched a tiffin service, inspired by the dabbawala system.
The company, DabbaDrop, is inspired by Mumbai's successful and zero-waste approach and avoids the use of single-use plastic containers for food packaging. A video going viral online depicts the UK-based business employing classic Indian steel tiffin boxes filled with Indian foods such as paneer sabzi, mixed vegetables, and rice. In addition, the food is plant-based. They also wrap the steel lunch boxes in cloth and transport them by cargo bike.
The company said in an Instagram video, "We've been in operation for almost SIX years now! How time flies. So far we've saved over 375,660 plastic takeaway containers from being used and we've only just begun!! Somewhere in the not so distant future we hope to go NATIONWIDE - spreading DabbaDrop love across the UK."
The clip was shared by Rishi Bagree on X (formerly Twitter.) "Foreigners copied our dabba wala Tiffin idea and launched their own Startup Dabba drop." Since being shared, it has amassed five lakh views and eight thousand likes on the platform.
"I think one of the founder has Indian roots - Anshu Ahuja. It's more like a culture export. Making Indian food more Popular. Good to see they retained word dabba to show the origin," said a user.
"This is great to see Bharat's patent used in other countries," stated a person.
Another added, "Look at their hygiene, food quality and delivery. It's top notch."
"Good. Something foreigners copied from India. Our Dabbawals doing this for ages in city like Mumbai with zero faults. Best example of best supply chain," remarkd a user.
Another added, " I am just happy they named it dabba and not something they can later claim to be western invention."
