Convenience food sector growing in leaps and bounds

A food revolution, which is transforming the way people prepare meals across the country, appears to be under way. As families grow smaller, people prefer fully prepared meals, instead of fixing them from scratch.

The same holds true for hotels and restaurants, where operators traditionally relied on their chefs’ craftsmanship. The trend is leading to the growth of convenience food sector.

With well-established companies providing sauces, dairy products, processed meats, frozen foods, ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meals, an increase in the use of convenience food has been noted in both international chains such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza, and home-grown chains such as Mast Kalandar, Rajdhani, Kaati Zone, and Haldiram’s.

“The food service industry is projected to grow further, at a double digit rate, over the next five years. This has encouraged both budding entrepreneurs and existing businesses to venture into this sector, and glean knowledge from existing players in order to replicate their success. This includes adoption of convenience foods,” said Reetesh Shukla, Associate Director, Food Services and Agriculture, Technopak.

The use of convenience foods, which was earlier restricted to quick service restaurant formats, is also increasingly finding favour in fine dining formats, though in varying degrees.

“Earlier, the chefs used to rely on complete backward integration of their recipes, where they used to make their own chutneys and grind their own masalas to deliver a unique and signature taste, which became the hallmark of the restaurant,” noted Shukla.

This has given way to different brands supplying convenience foods. For instance, frozen vegetables like potatoes, peas and beans could be sourced from Safal and McCain, while Indian, Western and Oriental soups could be sourced from Knorr, Maggi, Keya and Ching’s Secret.

Similarly, processed meats like salami, sausages, ham, bacon, meat patties and other cuts of meat could be sourced from Venky’s, Godrej Tyson, Sumeru, Al Kabeer, among others, while ready-to-eat gravies, dals, parathas, theplas and biryanis could be sourced from ITC’s Kitchens of India, MTR, Maiyas, Aashirvad, Kohinoor, Knorr and Maggi.

International players such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza and KFC prefer varied forms of convenience foods, either as a part of their recipe or as the final serving to the consumer. Tomato ketchup and other sauces, for instance, are used as an accompaniment, while frozen patties and sausages as recipe ingredients, and frozen French fries and potato wedges as side dishes.

“The availability of these ingredients in the market has aided in the growth of the food services industry as a whole, with more and more chefs now believing in ‘smart’ selection of ingredients. Operators are inclined to using convenience foods for, apart from consistency of taste and quality, they help reduce labour costs and lower the dependence on skilled chefs,” added Shukla.

Sensing the opportunity, leading food companies such as Unilever, Nestle, PepsiCo, Cremica (Mrs Bector’s), Fun Foods (Dr Oetker) and Capital Foods are augmenting their infrastructure and developing new categories of convenience foods such as South Indian premixes, soup powders, readymade gravies, cereal based breakfast options, and various kinds of dessert mixes.

Some brands have collaborated with food service operators and developed customised products to extend their own product portfolio.

For example, Cremica has worked with McDonald’s to create new dips for the brand, while Fun Foods has been associated with Subway in developing customised variants of sauces and mayonnaise.

Given the growing trend of chain formats and the limited availability of skilled chefs, convenience foods could grab more space in the commercial as well as the domestic kitchen.