The Hindu Business Line : Indian food sector looks West to tickle taste buds

TASTE the food of the future. Yogurt flavoured with fruit pulp; lassi laced with chocolate or strawberry; curds textured so fine that it can be cut with a spoon; cheese variants like feta, pasta filata becoming as common as marguerita.

The Indian food sector is looking westward to acquire the latest trend that tickles the taste buds. Trying to help it get there are the likes of Chr. Hansen and Danisco, global majors in food ingredients. Low cholesterol, low fat, high nutrition food items still have a while to go in India, but the leading domestic players want to be in a vantage position when the floodgates open.

Setting the tone of things to come was the week-long visit last month by a dozen representatives of the food industry major Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) to Chr. Hansen's Copenhagen headquarters. Industry watchers expect refreshing things to follow in processed milk segments like yogurt, lassi and cheese.

"India, being world's largest milk and milk product consumer, is ready to move beyond ethnic products. That means natural food with dietary ingredients. Given the growing concern about children and youngsters turning to junk food and aerated and carbonated drinks, natural food may soon catch on. Amul, as the market leader, is getting ready for action in this sector in the coming years," said Mr Pawan Singh, Amul's Manager - Marketing, who led the 12-member team to Chr. Hansen's Copenhagen plant in January.

For a window into what could be in store, one only needs to look at the revolution in yogurt consumption that Chr. Hansen helped usher in for Polish dairy producer Obory w Kozienicach a few seasons back. The Polish dairy major, having roped in Atys Poland, one of Poland's largest fruit pulp producers, to develop black fruit pulp, eventually turned to Chr. Hansen. Today, black drinking fruit yogurt is a rage among the trendy young Poles who were fed up with conventional dairy products.

"Amul is our largest client. Other two are Nestle and Britannia. Now we are looking at state-level milk co-operative federations. The need is more to reach tier-two customers such as hotels, flight kitchens and big caterers - those who process a minimum 1,000 litres of milk a day," says Mr Tansukh Jain, Managing Director, Chr. Hansen, India.

Products on offer from the company include pro-biotic cultures, phyto nutrients like beta carotene and lycopene - none too well known in the Indian food industry. The big names in the Indian food sector are beginning to take notice, but the challenge lies in broad-basing the use of these products. Clearly, health food - fermented et al - still continues to tickle the palate of only the gourmet and the trick would lie in placing it in the commoner's menu.

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