Foodie revolution
ARUNA CHANDARAJU
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Snip, heat and eat - this is fast becoming the latest mantra. A look at the growing ready-to-eat market in India.
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PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH
SAVOUR GOURMET CUISINE AT HOME: Prepare a meal without any fuss.
THERE'S a revolution being cooked up in the Indian food scene. Suddenly, ready-to-eat foods are available everywhere. Rajma-chawal, masala-dosas, dal makhani to gourmet cuisine like mirch ka salan, and delectable desserts: everything that only mom, your friendly-neighbourhood dhabawala, or a speciality restaurant could rustle up is now available straight out of a pouch or tin. You only have to cut, heat and eat.
Of course, this revolution took its time in coming. Indian consumers have proved to be very attached to the freshly cooked variety: whether homemade or at an eatery. Food from a pouch aroused the usual suspicions: it wouldn't be fresh, or as nutritious considering the preservatives and also never taste or smell as good. Being enclosed in aluminium containers and stood on shelves could mean contamination.
Renewed enthusiasm
So, how did things change? How is it that the market today is worth "over Rs. 35 crores and growing at around 30 per cent year on year," as Ravi Naware, CEO, ITC Foods with "Kitchens of India" and "Aashirvad Ready Meals", puts it? All the leading players like MTR, Kohinoor, Tasty Bites, Indo-Nissin, Currie Classic, HLL, are stepping up production, and widening their product range.
In fact, Tasty Bites, which closed shop after a poor response a decade ago, has reopened business with renewed enthusiasm. Lots of smaller manufacturers and home-based businesses are reporting increasing sales of their heat-and-eat rotis, appams, bobbattus, Kerala parathas...
What are the ingredients of this success story? Convenience. Nuclear families, working couples, long commute and rushed schedules means time is scarce. Even visiting a nearby restaurant takes time and effort.
Another reason is non-availability or paucity of domestic help. Neelima Jain, Delhi-based architect and mother of two, says, "It is easier to rely on these packs than on domestic help. When they don't turn up and you have to leave for work/or reach home tired, other chores can wait, but one has to eat."
Also, there is such a thing as an emergency. C. Vaishali, Bangalore-based homemaker, buys these products despite the time and inclination to rustle up elaborate meals, because "they are useful back-ups. Especially, since most have a shelf life of nearly a year."
PHOTO: A. ROY CHOWDHURY
Save time: No need for expertise.
Also, cut, heat and eat requires no culinary knowledge or expertise, no painstaking preparation processes to savour gourmet cuisine at home.
And there's a wide and ever-increasing choice: vegetarian and non-vegetarian, basic food and delectable desserts, south and north Indian cuisine. With zero knowledge of how to make a certain kind of food, the customer's only alternative so far was to visit a restaurant. Besides, the increasing penetration of microwave ovens aids this trend.
Safe packaging
According to experts, safety is no issue since all food items packaged and sold in the market have to get PFA (prevention of food adulteration) certification, which is a safety seal. Lastly, modern technology like retorting and retort pouches ensure preservation without preservatives. Dr. G.C. Ranga Rao, Scientist (food-packaging technology), Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, elaborates, "Cooked foods get spoiled mainly due to microbial action because of contamination with micro organisms and their growth. The high moisture content and nutrients in cooked food make this growth possible. In Retort Technology, food is heat-processed in a sealed package (pouch) to achieve a certain degree of sterility. The pack's hermetic seal prevents further contamination. Reactions of certain food components with atmospheric oxygen cause food spoilage. In a closed package where little oxygen is available for reactions, this possibility is also eliminated."
What about nutrient quality? There is hardly any difference, we were told. Initially, both homemade and packaged foods are cooked in the same way (the latter uses assembly-line production). Apparently, all food loses whatever nutrients are lost in the cooking processes at this stage itself.
So, the next stage, which only packed foods undergo, i.e. of heating to about 120oC for sterilisation, doesn't change things significantly, nutritionally. "Except for fractional losses in Vitamin B1 (which is heat-liable) and Vitamin-C, hence their availability in heat-processed foods will be less," says Dr. Rao. In short, the relevant nutrient comparison is between raw and cooked food, not home cooked and packaged foods.
Moderate pricing also draws buyers. A pricing strategy whose wisdom ITC learnt through experience. When they first introduced their range of curries and desserts, they were lauded for authentic taste. But at Rs. 150 for a 450 gm tin of dal bukhara (which feeds two to three), it was strictly a limited clientele. Today, their combo-meal packet of rice and rajma costs only Rs. 45. To cut costs, four earlier tinned products, have been relaunched in pouches at a lower price. New launches too are in pouches.
Doubts
Yet, not everybody is biting or will vouch for the pouch. The usual doubts persist. Also, the packs rarely live up to claims of serving two or three. Often they are barely adequate for one. And with growing health-consciousness and weight watching, many households carefully prepare low fat and low-oil meals, an option the packaged foods preclude.
So, many stay away, despite the temptation. Like Mumbai-based Kishore Gotety, Director, ICICI Ventures, who travels extensively and has a hectic schedule even when in town. He and his family are nevertheless "die-hard home food fans with packaged stuff being a last resort."
And the taste debate will always be there. "The navaratan curry has been kept mixed for so long, the individual ingredients have lost their respective tastes: everything tastes of the gravy," one respondent said. Most say, compared item to item, the aromas and taste of the fresh, homemade version are distinctly superior to the packaged one.
But then, that is probably the point. There is, indeed, nothing to beat mom's cooking. And probably never will be. But when she isn't around, or when you are time-strapped, or fancy some instant gourmet cuisine right at home itself, a cut-and-eat pack is the next-best thing. Small wonder that Indians are developing a healthy appetite for meals from a pouch.
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