Final oil & foods november 2013

Scientific Revelations About Some Common Foods

Pg 10

Find the best solution from multiple choices

2013: Interesting Time for Indian Retail Pg 13 ‘GMP Compliance’ – A beneficial transition in Rice Industry ….!!!!

Pg 17 Nanotechnology In Food: More Than A Question of Taste Pg 24

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Original thinking: Forensic for food Pg 26

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

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Editorial From the Desk of Editor

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Vol 09, Issue 01, November 2013

he Indian food value chain is on the verge of a great transformation - from one characterized by high wastage, low processing and low global contribution to one that is more streamlined, more integrated and more significant in the global trade.

The opportunities in the food processing industry are significant and expected to reach a size of Rs 400,000 crore by FY15 contributing to around 6.5 percent to the GDP. The food processing industry was on an assured track of growth and profitability and was expected to attract phenomenal investment in capital, human, technological and financial areas.

Food processing industry in India has attracted Foreign Direct Investment worth USD 1970.09 millon from April 2000 to July 2013, according to the latest data published by Department of Industrial Policy and Program, which suggested the potential of the sector. Since the total food production of the country is estimated to double in the next 10 years, there is an opportunity for large investments in food and food processing technologies.

Government of India focusing on the enhancement of the food industry has decided to fast-track the National Dairy Plan in the coming years to meet the fast growing demand of milk in the country. Dairy sector in the country is one of the most vibrant sectors of Indian economy.

The value of milk production in the country is much higher than value of paddy and wheat production together. This sector engages around 7 crore households, mainly women from the families of small and marginal farmers. While the world milk production grew at the rate of 2.2 percent in last decade, our growth rate at 4.2 percent is almost double than the world average.

With growing incomes, the demand for milk is increasing rapidly in the country. Emerging trends indicate that milk demand is likely to be 150 million tonnes at the end of 12th five year plan and more than 180 million tonnes by the end of 13th five year plan. To meet these demands the incremental annual production of milk must grow at a rate of 6 million tonnes per year over the next 10 years. Access to good quality milk as a source of nutrition, especially for children and women, could be ensured from higher levels of production of milk. Furthermore, it is essential to assist rural farmers to gain greater access to organized markets.

Lets divert to another sect of the food industry that is exploring newer and innovative vistas, like the Spice board of India is selling spice flavored chocolate thus making nuts and raisin a passé. Chocolate connoisseurs can now satisfy their sweet cravings by indulging in chocolates laced with traditional Indian spices. Chili, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and cumin could be some of the flavours targeted at the niche customers.

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The flavoured chocolates remain a niche product with global players like Lindt, Heidi, Torres, Valor, Whitakers selling various flavours at specialty stores and airports. Globally, chocolates with flavours of salty cashew nuts, beef, bacon, barbequed potato chips, peanut butter, and banana are popular. There is a particular segment of consumers who prefer flavoured chocolates. And thus spice board produces cardamom and orange-flavoured chocolates to cater to this growing segment.

Chili chocolate is synonymous with luxury Swiss chocolate company Lindt and coconut chocolate by American chocolate brand Bounty. None of the raw material is grown in their country. A chocolate with paan can be an Indian specialty for at least domestic taste buds.

But every paradise has its serpent, though the Indian food industry is touching new heights but food loss is a major issue here; Currently, over 77 million tonne fruits and about 150 million tonne vegetables are produced in India and their production is growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) ranging between 5-6 per cent respectively, but unfortunately about 30 per cent of total fruits and vegetables produced are rendered unfit for consumption due to spoilage after harvesting, as they are highly perishable commodities.

As such, India incurs post harvest fruits and vegetable losses worth over Rs 2 lakh crore each year, owing to the absence of food processing units, modern cold storage facilities and a callous attitude towards tackling the grave issue of post harvest losses.

The magnitude of post harvest loss in fruits and vegetables can be minimized by proper cultural operations, harvesting, transportation, storage, pre and post harvest treatments and other such significant measures. Storage is the most important aspect of post harvest fruit and vegetable handling, as it extends the storage life of the produce, thereby enhancing its availability period.’ Total storage capacity in India is over 300 lakh tonnes, with an additional requirement of cold storage of about 370 lakh tonnes for fruits and vegetable storage.

The existing cold storage capacity in India is confined only to wholesale markets, while the majority of fruits and vegetables are sold at local or regional markets which do not have cold storage facility. Wholesale markets play a crucial role in vertical co-ordination of markets, equilibrating supply with demand and facilitate price formation. Besides, their role reduces per unit marketing costs, promotes stable markets for local produce and encourages increased output and productivity. In all this though food industry is doing a great job in India but still there are a lot of loops to be filled in a lot of gaps to be closed. But the future is equal to the slogan “Indian food processing industry shining”

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Contents NEWS 30 SEA demands Maha govt to stop sale of loose edible oil 32 Edible Oil Outlook: Short-term spikes may not sustain 33 Bunge India set to revive palm oil brand Lotus 36 Post-harvest loss in food-grains at 6%: ICAR 37 Warehousing plays major role in implementing food security: Food minister 39 India Poised to Resume Wheat Exports 40 Iran Imports $1.2 Billion Worth Of Rice From India 41 Agri ministry proposes import duty on pulses 42 RIL to revive Falta food processing venture in Bengal, invest Rs 1000 crore 43 Is Guar Gum’s dream run nearing its end?

44 When Cadbury replaced its eclairs 45 RIL to enter the Chicken Business 46 Huge opportunities in Indian food processing Segment-FICCI-KPMG 47 Indian food additives market to reach $898 million in 2017: Frost & Sullivan 48 Tata Global Beverages raises Rs 325 cr in debenture issue 49 Manpasand Beverages set to invest Rs 100 cr 50 Dabur scion plans to expand own F&B venture overseas 51 Amul launches new modern dairy in Virar 52 Lactalis Group to acquire majority stake in Tirumala Milk Products 53 Local companies see a churn in dairy business 54 The thousandthKrones Contiroll HS 55 The Emerson Cup 2013 Announces Its Winners For The 6th Edition Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

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Scientific Revelations About Some Common Foods

Pg 13

2013: Interesting Time for Indian Retail

Pg 17

‘GMP Compliance’ – A beneficial transition in Rice Industry ….!!!!

Pg 24

Nanotechnology In Food: More Than A Question of Taste

Pg 26

Original thinking: Forensic for food

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SCIENTIFIC REVELATIONS ABOUT SOME COMMON FOODS Alka Joshi1 and S. C. Jain2 Assistant Professor and 2Advisor, Amity Institute of Food Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Sector – 125, Noida, U.P. (India), Corresponding author Email: apandey3@amity.edu 1

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ood is the source of energy and nutrients for human body. Food contains various macro and micro nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals that nourish our body. It is surprising to know that there are certain factors present in foods, which have no nutritional advantages. They reduce the nutritional quality of foods due to their toxic effect on human health and adverse effect on the bioavailability of vital nutritive components.

Some foods from routine diet have been found to be extremely harmful and are required to be used with caution. Some examples of such foods are given below:

of glycoalkaloids (solanine) which causes toxicity. Solanine poisoning is primarily manifested in gastrointestinal and neurological disorders. In large quantities, solanine poisoning can cause death. One study suggests that doses of 2 to 5 mg per kilogram of body weight can cause toxic symptoms, and doses of 3 to 6 mg per kilogram of body weight can be fatal.

POTATOES: Usually, the normal potato is harmless; but when it contains a greenish taint, it is rendered harmful. The greenish appearance in tuber is due to the presence 10

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Food Science RICE: Rice is a part of staple diet in India. Cooked rice which is considered to be safe will not remain safe if stored at room temperature.

The moist and warm environment in the initial stage becomes home to a bacterial population of Bacillus cereus, a common problem of cereal-based processed products (breads, buns etc.). This is not a deadly microorganism but it can induce severe vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches and nausea. Reheating of rice is considered to be the safest method by most of the consumers but in fact this is not true. Even if the rice is reheated to temperatures above 1000C, this is not enough to kill the spores of Bacillus cereus and stored rice continues to be harmful.

PULSES: The presence of higher molecular weight complex oligosaccharides in pulses causes flatulence (gas formation). Human beings do not have the capacity to digest these oligosaccharides (stachyose, raffinose, verbescose etc.). Repeated washings using water before cooking are recommended for reduction of flatulence severity to an acceptable level in pulses e.g. in pigeon pea (arhar dal), chick pea (chana dal) etc.

SOYBEANS: We are well aware that soybeans are the richest source of protein for vegetarians.

But raw soybeans contain high amount of trypsin inhibitors which are protein in nature and inhibit the activity of trypsin enzyme (useful enzyme in the gut), interfere with digestibility of dietary proteins and reduce their utilization. Not only soybeans, but lots of other pulses also contain significant amount of trypsin inhibitors like Kidney beans (Rajmah).

Haemagglutinins is another big issue of consideration in raw pulses, which are also known as lectins and causes agglutination Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

of red blood cells. Fortunately these inhibitors are heat labile. Suitable heat treatment like boiling (for 20-30 min) and roasting (for 8-10 min) reduces their harmful effect to a safe level. Perhaps this may be the reason behind traditional practice of roasting of black soybeans before consumption in hilly reason of Uttarakhand.

KHESARI DAL: Khesari dal is very well known adulterant of pigeon pea dal as its dehusked seeds resemble pigeon pea in appearance.

Khesari dal contains lathyrogens and causes lathyrism which is a nervous disease that cripples the consumers. They may be osteotoxic or neurotoxic i.e. toxic for bones or nerves. Accordingly, they are known as osteolathyrogens and neurolathyrogens.

Steeping in water followed by boiling can reduce lathyrogens content of pulse to a safe level.

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GROUNDNUTS: Groundnuts contain certain substances that interfere with iodine uptake by thyroid gland in human body, which are known as goitrogens. Excessive intake of foods containing such substances may lead to goitre. Goitrogens are mainly concentrated in the cuticle of groundnuts.

As goitrogens are heat labile, roasting is always advisable before consumption of groundnuts.

Groundnuts stored in warm, moist climates are most likely to be affected by another type of toxins known as aflatoxins, produced by Aspergillus flavus and are typed as B1, B2, B3, G1, G2, M1, M2, P1, Q1, H1 present in foods. They are highly toxic to liver (hepatotoxin) and are also known as hepatocarcinogens.

APPLES: Apple is a swollen thalamus containing seeds. That is why it is known as false fruit. Seeds are concentrated source of cyanogenic compounds. Cyanogenic compounds produce hydrocyanic acid on hydrolysis. Hydrocyanic acid is a very potential toxicant. Therefore, incidentally and accidently, we should never allow apple seeds to enter in any of our food recipes.

Food Science CASHEW NUTS: A raw cashew contains a toxic chemical named urushiol. Roasting is the treatment which has been practiced since long.

Roasting not only makes cashew safe for consumption but also enhances its flavour profile. Likewise, in some parts of India e.g. Goa, steamed cashew nuts are also available in market which is safe for consumption because the nature of urushiol is heat sensitive.

SORGHUM: Physically sorghum is a coarse grain.

Remember, never consume sorghum after germination as its rootlets contain significant amount of cyanogens which are highly toxic in nature as mentioned earlier.

BROAD BEANS: Broad beans commonly known as ‘Bakla’ causes favism which is a disease characterized by haemolytic anaemia in human beings. Germination and boiling are some of the tricks which reduce its toxic content significantly.

HIGH FIBRE FOODS: High fibre foods are always associated with high phytates content. Phytates are mainly present in husk or bran portion of cereal, pulses and oilseeds. They reduce the bioavailability of vital divalent ions (e.g. Ca++, Zn++ and Fe++ etc.).

Therefore, high fibre foods should be taken with caution.

BAMBOO: Bamboo shoots and bamboo shoot pickles are very common in Indian market. North East Himalayan range of India has rich flora of bamboo which has been used for various non-food uses from very early times like furniture, construction purpose etc. But as non-conventional source of foods, bamboo has drawn serious interest of scientists. Always remember, bamboo shoot contains high level of cyanogens.

Severe washings can reduce cyanogenic compounds to a safe level.

Therefore, you have to be cautious before you consume above mentioned foods.

Suitable processing e.g. boiling, roasting, washing and germination can reduce their toxic effect to a safe limit. Appropriate treatment is selectd, depending upon the nature of the toxicants whether they are heat stable or sensitive, water soluble or not. Suitable processing treatment is strongly recommended to practice in industry and at household level before consumption, as a whole food or in the form of ingredient or even in the form of additive in any food formulation.

SAFED MUSLI: Safed musli (Genus: Asparagus) and some pulses in their raw form contain saponins. Saponins produce foam when saponins containing commodity is shaken with water. Saponins cause nausea and vomiting. Soaking prior to cooking may eliminate saponins to a certain level.

However, some scientific studies also reveal some health benefits of saponins.

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Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

2013:

Interesting Time for Indian Retail

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hile, the retail market opportunity in India, surged from USD 120 billion in 2001 to an estimated USD 490 billion in 2012. It is further projected that this will rise to USD 1.3 trillion by 2020. The Indian FMCG industry is growing at 11 per cent annually. The current retail market size is USD 500 billion.

SNAPSHOT OF FDI IMPLEMENTATION India eased foreign investment rules in retail in a renewed attempt to attract global supermarket chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Tesco. Foreign retailers have been keen to enter India’s $500 billion retail market since the country allowed overseas investment in its supermarket sector in September 2012 but ambiguity around entry rules has kept them away. The issue also remains politically controversial because of worries that millions of small shopkeepers could go out of business and India has so far not received a single application from any global retailer.

Following are the key highlights of India’s efforts to reform retail sector: Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

November 2011 - India allowed foreign supermarket chains to enter the country and own up to 51 percent in their Indian operations in an attempt to bring in much needed capital from abroad and build its poor infrastructure supply chain. It also allowed single brand retailers like Swedish furniture giant IKEA to own 100 percent of their business in India.

December 2011 – The government put the retail reform on hold, backtracking from its boldest measures in years in the face of political backlash from allies and opposition parties over worries that millions of small shopkeepers could go out of business.

January 2012 – India formally eliminated ownership restrictions on foreign investment in single-brand retail but required that companies source 30 percent from small local firms.

The evolution and growth of the Indian retail sector has had many twists in the last decade. From a boom to bust, the industry witnessed it all! We saw mall developers going all out to launch their projects but then we also saw malls shutting shops as well. The highlight of 2012 remained around FDI and GST. Where the issue of FDI has been resolved, GST implementation remains pending.

sentiment, double-digit food inflation and the threat of a credit-ratings downgrade.

September 2012 – India revived the retail reform, allowing foreign supermarkets to buy up to 51 percent in a local partner with restrictions around sourcing and investment in an effort to appease political opposition. Local sourcing requirements for single brand retailers were diluted.

June 2013 – The government issued a clarification and said global supermarket operators can not acquire existing assets of Indian companies and that the initial mandatory $100 million investment to set up supply chain infrastructure and stores must be in new assets.

August 2013 – India relaxed sourcing and investment rules for supermarkets. It allowed retailers to meet 30 percent sourcing requirement over 5 years initially and said they only have to invest 50 percent of June 2012 – New Delhi began clearing an “initial” mandatory investment of $100 the ground for a new push to open up the million in setting up cold storages and supermarket sector amid souring investor warehouses. Following are some facts on 13

Retail the retail sector in India: * India’s population is around 1.2 billion and the retail sector sees annual sales of $500 billion, with nearly 90 percent of the market controlled by tiny family-run shops. * Organised retail makes up less than 10 percent of the market but is expanding at 20 percent a year, driven by the emergence of shopping centres and malls and a middle class of close to 300 million and whose numbers are growing at nearly 2 percent a year. * India allows full foreign ownership in single-brand retail and cash-and-carry or wholesale ventures. It allows 51 percent ownership in supermarkets RETAIL TRENDS Kirana stores will thrive and grow The possible impact of easing FDI in India has been on many Indian minds of late; of principal concern is the shift between organized and unorganized modes of retail. It has been vehemently argued that the entry of international multi-brand retailers will wipe out indigenous retail formats – specifically the neighbourhood stores, or kiranas. However, we believe that these kiranas will continue to be successful, if only due to the fact that they offer a flexibility and convenience that international retailers, lacking an indepth knowledge of the average Indian consumer, will be hard to match.

It can be observed that kiranas cater to a customer segment whose purchases are largely need-based. Further, these smaller stores are capable of offering even single/ low-value items right at their customer’s doorstep. The mind-boggling retail density statistic – 15 shops per 1000 population in India compared to 1 shop per 1000 population in the developed world, explains how this high degree of customization is made possible. Further, the development of high-rise housing societies and colonies has given this retail format a new avenue for growth, with each society providing space for such a retailer who is often also flexible in terms of payment – customers can maintain some amount of periodic credit.

E-tailing will find its footing and grow The e-tailing revolution, although a relatively late arrival on the Indian scene, has picked up steam primarily on the back of price discounts. While the discounting model may not last, the habit of buying on-

line will certainly gain traction in a large segment of urban and semi-urban consumers. E-tail opportunity in 2021 is pegged at US$ 76 bn.

Manifold growth of e-tail in the next decade will largely be due to the convergence of multiple factors that will enable the creation of an ecosystem for the takeoff of e-tailing in India. From the demand perspective, some of the enabling factors will include Internet access via broadband or high speed mobile networks, the availability and penetration of affordable Smartphone’s and tablets, and the creation of a sizeable consumption class that will be short for time for shopping through brickand-mortar formats. From the constraints perspective, the lack of access to affordable real estate will be become the biggest enabler for the take-off of e-tailing in India.

While lower Internet penetration and higher cost of customer acquisition is still a hurdle, the growing acceptance of online retailing across many product categories is the beginning to change the shopping habits of urban India. The impression that online retail is useful only for specific categories like travel and ticketing is passé, and customers now acknowledge that there is hardly any product category that isn’t sold through the Internet. With technology assisting this transition, even apparel and personal care products are being purchased online. From the e-tailer’s perspective, the real challenge is to supplement their offerings with better and more secure purchasing interfaces, try-and-buy retail models and optimizing logistics, especially product delivery.

Casual dining continue to gain ground Quick Service Restaurants, or QSRs, appear to be the next paradigm in terms of format, largely driven on the one hand by retailers’ need to innovate and, on the other hand, by the ever-increasing time-poverty on the part of customers. This segment already has seen a high degree of penetration by both domestic and international players who are now competing solely in terms of menu range, prices and exotic/ combination offerings. International chains, for instance, choose to blend in local flavors with signature products as a means of both tempting customers and justifying higher-than-average prices. Successfully international food service brands are also investing time and effort to local nuances 14

and adapting to it. McDonald’s Veg Only outlet at Vaishno Devi is a case in point.

Such a step was unthinkable ten years back. Additionally, domestic retailers have opted for extreme specialization – focusing exclusively on a single cuisine (e.g.

Vaango) and even a single product (Goli Vada Pav) to capture the customer’s fancy.

Increasingly, however, it is service innovation that is giving food retailers a unique positioning. Food retailers have also come up with takeaway-friendly products that let the customers’ economize on the need for cooking space and/or devices, as well as on time. There has also been an encouraging rise of such Internet-based vendors as Foodpanda.in, Justeat.in, Megamenu.in, etc. which especially attract younger urban customers with the option of customized food delivery via a collaboration with branded food retailers. Thus, irrespective of whether they have a niche product offering or a diverse menu range, whether they invite customers in to savour an unmatchable dining experience or allow the customer to make a quick pick-up/ delivery order, food retailers have their work cut out.

More retail shelf space for gourmet and international foods The unprecedented success of Masterchef, on Indian Prime time television underpin the trend of changing taste and sensibilities of Indian consumer towards food merchandise. Today’s savvy customers, through access to hitherto unavailable media channels, have fine-tuned their choices and expect these preferences to be met even by their local retailers. The sudden mushrooming of gourmet food products on retail shelves is one consequence of this chain mechanism. While gourmet foods only make up about 12-13 per cent of organized food and grocery retail at present, they are expected to burgeon to ~18 per cent over the next four years. This is indicative of how such ingredients as oils, syrups, nuts, spices, vinegar and imported wines may now be found in many households whereas they were only to be seen in fine-dining restaurants earlier. The consequent upwelling of specialty retail outlets like Nature’s Basket, Le Marché Sugar and Spice, Ruci and Idoni, Maison Des Gourmets, Nuts n Spices, etc. to cater to these product categories is only to be expected.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Progress through innovation

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Retail Discerning demand for health and beauty products The health and beauty products category parallels the gourmet foods story. Customers are better equipped with knowledge about healthy foods and wellness services. This creates an opportunity for both health-conscious beverages and foods and for retailing off-the-shelf health and beauty products. Outlets like Yogurberry, Red Mango and JusBooster owe their existence to this demand, while another offshoot of this is the transformation of salon premises into retailing avenues, thanks to the backing of Marico’s, Kaya Skin Clinic, and HUL’s Lakmé Beauty Salons. Stores like Iraya, Nature’s Co., The Body Shop, Fabindia, etc. also prove that the Indian consumer is demanding natural, eco-friendly and ecologically-conscious products.

FDI IN RETAIL: IS 30% LOCAL SOURCING FEASIBLE? – YES India’s biggest challenge is to create employment opportunities for over 10 million people coming to the job market every year.

To create 100 million jobs, the National Manufacturing Policy envisages increasing the sectoral share of manufacturing in GDP from the current 15-25 per cent over the next decade by achieving an annual average growth rate of 12-14 per cent in the manufacturing sector. This requires retaining the existing manufacturing base and exploring new opportunities.

India’s retail sector, worth around $500 billion, is the front end of millions of farmers, and small, medium and large producers. Only 5-8 per cent is in the organised sector. Therefore, the number of people employed in the retail sector as well as in its back-end supply chains is huge.

The present controversy relates to the FDI policy which mandates the multi-brand foreign retailer to source 30 per cent of its goods from “Indian small industries”. The caveat has been introduced with three objectives: first, it encourages retaining and expanding the existing manufacturing base and associated employment; second, it discourages imports by foreign retailers from their few large dedicated suppliers. This is to check widening of current account deficit and the impending foreign exchange crisis. Third, with jobs being intact, the purchasing power remains robust and economic growth becomes sustainable.

Is the 30 per cent clause tenable? Our argument is, it is. The government has already enhanced the small industry investment threshold from $1 million to $2 million.

That means typically such a small company could easily have a turnover of Rs 50-100 crore — not really a small supplier incapable of generating volumes. It may be possible to interpret the rules such that a small industry is considered as such even if it outgrows the threshold level of investment in its relationship with the retailer.

Therefore, the size of small industry is not a constraint. If foreign retailers have objections, it is because they are unwilling to commit themselves to develop the capacities of Indian manufacturers, and would rather go for imports.

India’s auto component sector is the result of government’s auto policy which mandated foreign companies to progressively indigenise procurement from domestic sources through the 80s and 90s. It is because of such policies that companies such as Suzuki and others brought their supplier base to India and, through a series of joint ventures, transferred technology to Indian companies. If India’s retail sector is attractive enough, the FDI policy for multi-brand retail will also lead to transfer of technologies to Indian SMEs. GOVERNMENT ‘S PLAY The domestic retail market is poised to touch USD 1.3 trillion by 2020 and the industry has the responsibility to provide quality goods and services at affordable prices. The consumer behaviour is also experiencing a transition with trends like online shopping, he said at an event organised by FICCI. With consumer awareness improving dumping of cheap goods from neighbouring countries is slowing down.

The Indian FMCG industry is growing at 11 per cent annually. The current retail market size is USD 500 billion. The Indian industry has to live up to the expectations of people who look up to them for goods and services at price they can afford and at the same time the industry should serve consumers in such a manner that the regulators’ activities become redundant.

A high-level committee on internal trade reforms has been set up to see how laws could be streamlined to ensure vibrant market is in place for all stakeholders. Last week, the government relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in multi16

brand retail. It diluted mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing norms for multi-brand retailers and permitted states to include cities with population less than 1 million for allowing such retailing.

India’s huge consumer base of more than one billion is an opportunity for the FMCG sector, Thomas and hence the industry should take advantage of this and invent new products with superior technical prowess and intelligence.

At present, global players are taking benefit of this situation. They are shifting to India to manufacture their goods as the country has cheap labour and the big market to exploit. So to counter act it is important that the domestic industry should “seriously” take into account huge decline in the number of families living below poverty line (BPL).

To protect consumers from unfair trade practices, he said an inter-ministerial panel will soon be set up to discuss how the government can take sue motto notice of grievances of consumers and take actions accordingly.

TO SUM UP… Perennial headaches of retailers as spiralling rental and logistical costs, and rising food prices, can only be tackled through an innovation of available resources. Already retailers have resorted to the requisite revamping in order to maintain – and even maximize, profitability. Retailers need to become more sensitive to such retailing trends of consumers that are not only evolving rapidly but also becoming hard to measure and quantify. Continuous scan of the environment and look out for inflection points offer insights. These insights need to respond in the form of innovative retail formats and product offerings. New formats offer the potential to retail a vast array of products, while transformed product offerings can attract new consumer segments while making brands more appealing to existing customers. In such a scenario, we may see Indian retailers adopting the globally-accepted model of providing a quality retail experience and brand awareness through flagship stores and exclusive brand outlets, but using alternate channels such as multi-brand outlets, shop-in-shops and e-tailing to maximize sales

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

‘GMP Compliance’ A beneficial transition in Rice Industry ….!!!!

I

ndia is one of the world’s largest producers of white rice and brown rice, accounting for 20% of all world rice production. Rice is India’s prominent crop, and is the staple food of the people of the eastern and southern parts of the country.

Rice is one of the chief grains of India. Moreover, India has the biggest area under rice cultivation, as it is one of the principal food crops.

It is in fact the dominant crop of the country. Rice is the basic food crop and being a tropical plant, it flourishes comfortably in hot and humid climate. Rice is mainly grown in rain fed areas that receive heavy annual rainfall. That is why it is fundamentally a kharif crop in India.

It demands temperature of around 25 degree Celsius and above and rainfall of more than 100 cm.

without giving boiling / heating treatment to Paddy) • • Parboiled Rice (Processed after giving boiling / water heating treatment to the Paddy).

The raw or parboiled technique of processing may be applied to both • Basmati & Non-basmati Rice.

Good Manufacturing Practices: Good Manufacturing Practices should be implemented in Rice mill in order to provide rice products of safe and good quality suitable for consumption or being used as raw materials for further rice production processes.

A. Establishment 1. Location: • The establishment shall not be located in an area that may cause contamination to rice products

In wide term the rice is categorized into two kinds: • Basmati Rice • Non-Basmati Rice.

Sanjay Indani

contamination by salmonella.

Infestation by rodents, insects and mites due to inadequate pest control activity in drying area are important factors which lead to contamination of paddy.

Therefore, drying area shall be protected from the entry of pets and disease carrier animals, and/ or installed with fences.

b. Steaming areas • Wall, partition and floor shall be water-proof, non-absorbent, and made of non-toxic materials suitable for its intended use. c. Storage areas for paddy Designated area with adequate ventilation shall be provided for each product in order to prevent contamination. Also storage area shall prevent the entry of pests and disease carrier animals and protect the product against moisture.

2. Building and operating areas: a. Drying area • At places, where drying is done in open areas, the paddy gets For silo storage, silos shall: contaminated with bird droppings • Allow effective circulation of From manufacturing / pricing due to no control over the entry paddy or rice products by the angle, it is categorized as below: of birds & crows in storage area. basis of first-in and first-out • Raw Rice (Processed as raw i.e.

This eventually leads to microbial system without any leftover.

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GMP for Rice •

Be strong, easy to clean and maintain.

• Prevent the entry of pests & protect the paddy against moisture.

Rice grain is hygroscopic and in open storage systems the grain moisture content will eventually equilibrate with the surrounding air. High relative humidity and high temperatures contribute to high equilibrium / final moisture content.

Therefore, adequate ventilation or ambient temperature and relative humidity monitoring systems shall be provided.

Rice storage facilities take many forms depending on the quantity to be stored, purpose of storage and the location of the store.

Storage of rice for longer periods is possible if three conditions are met: • Rice grain is maintained at moisture levels of 14% or less and seed is stored at 12% or less • Rice grain is protected from insects, rodents and birds • It is protected from re-wetting by rain or imbibing moisture from the surrounding air.

The requirements for a good storage system include: • Ease of loading and unloading.

• Efficient use of space • Ease of maintenance and management.

The following table shows the ‘safe’ moisture content required for different storage periods.

Storage period

Required moisture content for safe storage

Potential problems

2 to 3 weeks

14 – 18 %

Molds, discoloration, respiration loss

8 to 12 months

12- 13 %

Insect damage

More than 9 % or less 1 year

Loss of viability

Rice Storage System: It can be classified as either bag or bulk storage Bag storage system: In most parts of Asia grain is stored in 2550kg bags made from either jute or woven plastic. Depending on the size of storage, these bags are normally formed into a stack.

When using bag storage consideration needs to be given to the following: • Jute bags & plastic bags should not be stacked at huge heights to prevent accidental slippage of bags • Bags should be stacked under cover e.g. under a roof, in a shed or granary or under water proof tarpaulins • Sufficient gap should be left between and around stacks and between the top of the stack and the roof for adequate cleaning.

• Bags should be stacked on pallets or on an above ground structure to avoid the possibility of absorbing moisture from the floor.

• Bags should not be stacked on a bed of rice husks or bags filled with rice husks, as these are difficult to keep free from insect infestation.

• Bags should be stacked so that fumigation can be undertaken easily.

• The efficiency of bag storage can be improved if a plastic liner bag is used inside the existing storage bag especially for seed and milled rice As soon as the stack is complete, it should be sprayed as per following norms:

Bulk storage: At farm level rice grain is often stored in bulk in small outside granaries or in woven baskets or containers made from wood, metal or concrete, which are located under or inside the house. Losses from insects, rodents, birds and moisture uptake are usually high in traditional bulk storage systems.

Therefore, large export mills and collection houses sometimes use metal or concrete silos since they have an advantage of being more easily sealed for fumigation and less grain is spilt or wasted.

Fumigation: In case of infestation, the stocks should be fumigated with Al. Phosphide under leak Proof covers with Dosage of 3 tablets or 9 gms per MT of stocks and exposure period of 1 week.

After fumigation is carried out, it should be noticed if there are any crawling insects on the top of stacks or on sides. If fumigation is done under gas proof cover it should be presumed that the fumigation operation has not been successful.

After the exposure period after fumigation the bags and the stacks should be cleaned and brushed thoroughly to remove ash and dead pest & stocks should be sprayed with Deltamathrion or with DDVP (in case of crawling infestation) to eliminate the chances of any living pest.

Storage Hygiene: Good Hygiene in storage area is important in maintaining the rice and seed quality which should include: • Sweeping the floor, removing cobwebs and dust, and collecting and removing any grain spills.

• Cleaning storage rooms after they are emptied by spraying walls, crevices and wooden pallets with an insecticide before using them again.

• Placing rat-traps and barriers in drying and storage areas.

Name of Insecticides

Nature of insecticides

Malathion 50 % CE in the emulsion of 1:100

Walls/alleyways bags surface 3 litres of prepared solution per 100 Contact poison Sq. meter to control insects and avoid cross infestation.

Every fortnight

DDVP to be diluted with water in 1:150

Semi fumigant & contract poison

Once in two weeks

20

Dosages

Remarks

On walls/ alleyways/ Empty space 3 litres of prepared solution per 100 Sq. meters (1000s.ft)

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

GMP for Rice •

Inspection of storage room regularly to keep it vermin proof.

Inspection of stored seeds once a week for signs of insect infestation.

When necessary and only under the direction of a trained pest control technician, the storage room or the seed stock may be sealed with tarpaulin and treated with fumigants.

4. Facilities • Adequate ventilation in the production • area.

• Adequate lighting in the quality • control areas where the quality is visually inspected.

• Water used in the rice polishing process shall be sufficient and shall meet the standards of potable water.

• Adequate facilities for personal 3. Equipment, Machinery and hygiene, cleaning utensils, toilets, Utensils: drainage and waste disposal shall be It is quite often observed that the provided. maintenance and cleaning of machines • Hazardous substances like pesticides in rice industry is a challenge since: and disinfectants shall be stored in a • Heavy and large machines do not secure and separated area. enable adequate cleaning.

• Contamination of product takes place due to oiling and greasing.

• Machines are usually made up of mild steel and over a period of time shedding of machine particles leads to contamination of the product.

In order to control the contamination of the product with iron particles of the machines, provisions need to made for passing the product through magnet or metal detector before final packing.

• •

Paddy receiving record Testing records

• • •

Processing record Material Issue Note General Cleaning and maintenance Validation and calibration of equipment, machinery and utensils Pest control and its prevention Storage of paddy, rice products, and by-products Transportation of rice products and vehicle inspection Records of personal hygiene, training and annual medical examination.

• • • • •

•

All records shall be maintained for at least 3 years or for a period that exceeds the shelf life of the product.

7.

Controls of insects and disease

carrier animals Pests in the rice industry include insects, pathogens, rodents and birds. These pests cause losses through a combination of feeding; spoiling and contamination In order to overcome this challenge, 5. Packing of rice products of both paddy and milled grain, therefore machines shall be: • Conveyors and rice packing management of these pests should be done • Strong, durable and made of machines shall be prevented from in a sequential and integrated manner. appropriate materials that do not contamination of dust and other cause contamination and shed any objectionable substances like debris An effective pest control system should particulate matter to rice products. of metal, glass, plastic, or chemicals. involve: • Regularly cleaned and maintained.

• Clean rice containers shall be • Harvesting, drying and storage of • Use of food grade oil and grease for provided which are ready for use and clean dry grain maintenance are non-defective.

• Disinfecting the storage system and • Checked for accuracy before • Containers that have been used for • Controlling or preventing pest use especially moisture meters, hazardous substances should not be infestation during the storage period mechanical driers, silos used for used.

• Fumigation - Fumigants are effective paddy storage, stone and metal • Weighing equipment and rice packing against storage pests because as gases particle separators, colour sorters and machines shall be calibrated at least they can reach the pests in the most rice packing machines. once a year. remote hiding place. The range of Specifications, types and sizes of safe fumigant chemicals that can be equipment, machinery and utensils used 6. Record keeping used is now restricted to phosphine in the production shall be appropriate for • The following information shall be and carbon dioxide. production capacity. recorded Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

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Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

GMP for Rice Control of pest infestations by: • Prevention: The manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that their workplace is designed and equipped to keep pests out and take swift, safe measures to deal with any infestation that occurs. Prevention can be achieved in many ways like maintaining the workplace clean & tidy, keeping doors & windows screened, Keeping external area clean, etc.

• Identification: The inspection for pests should be done regularly and particularly during stock rotation, cleaning and dealing with waste & scrap. Any identification of pests or signs of trouble should be reported immediately to initiate the further action. The indicators could be presence of dead insects, bird and rat droppings, unusual smells, torn or damaged sacks or packaging, sometimes surrounded by spilled grains.

• Eradication: Most of the companies appoint a pest control agency to kill pests. For own safety and for that of others it is essential not to touch or interfere with anything designed to eliminate pests.

Further, pest control measures can be useful in eradication of pests & includes one or more of the following: • Use of glue pads in roda boxes to catch rodents and to trap flies in insect traps / spider webs.

• Use of robon cake in roda boxes to kill the rat which is caught.

• Use of insecticutor/trap to kill the flies which are attracted to it.

• Gel used to kill cockroaches.

• Spray used for killing flies outside the process area.

In many industries it is observed that it is the responsibility of the pest control agencies to control the activity of the pests and eradicate it in case of infestation. This is becoming a challenge for the food industries since they completely rely on the pest control agencies and nobody is appointed to monitor their activity & effectiveness thereof.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

8. Personal Hygiene People are a common source of pathogenic bacteria, so everyone who works with the product must have the highest possible standards of personal hygiene and personal habits to avoid contaminating the product and causing illness.

• Hands are a significant source of food contamination. To avoid causing contamination, food handlers mean people working in packing must ensure that their hands are scrupulously clean at all times and are washed when they are likely to be contaminated.

• Caps or hair net should be used during packing process to avoid displacing of hair and contamination of product due to it.

• Jewellery including watches & other personal belongings should be kept in the locker at work since it could drop into product. All employers should provide lockers or separate areas to their workers for this purpose.

• A simple protective clothing like apron would reduce the risk of contaminating product.

• Care should be taken that smoking, spitting, eating, drinking, coughing or sneezing on the product or during packing and chewing of tobacco is prohibited in manufacturing premises.

• Cuts, other skin infections and wounds should be covered since they contain bacteria like Staphylococcus

23

aureus that cause food poisoning.

However, it is quite often observed that all the above mentioned requirements for personal hygiene are challenging aspect across the industry due to frequently changing manpower, care free attitude of the food handlers and lack of understanding towards its consequences on food safety aspects.

The food business operator must seek assistance of the Food Safety Expert to standardize the requirements & train food handlers in personal hygiene to overcome their casual approach towards good hygiene practices.

9. Training • All food handlers shall be trained on good hygienic practices and food safety.

• Machinery and quality control supervisors and personnel working in a product quality control laboratory shall be trained according to the duties and responsibility.

Author is Head-Food Safety at Qsafe Consultants (India). He is lead auditor & trainer in food safety. He is empanelled with FSSAI & State FDAs as a trainer & conducted more than 500 training sessions across India. For any query related to food safety or FSSR, he can be contacted on 07666578715 or sbi@ qsafeindia.com

NEWS

Using nanotechnology in food could potentially reduce wastage and improve people’s health, or it could result in our diets coming under corporate control. So which argument is right?

Oil and food Journal explores the pros and cons

NANOTECHNOLOGY IN FOOD: MORE THAN A QUESTION OF TASTE View: ‘Do you really want to eat these ingredients?’

Nanotechnology in the food industry is developed far in advance of public awareness. We’ve been here before: additives, irradiation, and genetic modification were all fixes promoted by industry which came unstuck on public opinion.

Advocates tout nanotechnology as a way to improve food, with technology in control. A different path is what I call “food democracy”, where people are engaged in advance. The future is about realigning food with planetary sustainability.

While evidence of current unsustainability has grown, global corporations have been getting more control over food supplies.

They say that they are accountable to us at the checkout, but consumers are barely aware of who these companies are, how they work or the scale of their market share. It’s some of these companies who

will be adding nanoparticles to your food and defining progress in your name.

This tension between food control and food democracy is not new. In the late 18th century, British economist and demographer Thomas Malthus painted a pessimistic picture of the future, where agriculture could not feed a growing population. In doing so, he posed an important question: what is the relationship between people, the planet, and our food supply?

That question is back. Today’s Asian consumer feeds as if we had two or three planets at our disposal; an American or Europeans eats as if there were four or five. Food is now a major factor in our footprint on the planet.

We waste and consume too much food in developed countries for multiple reasons, including massive oversupply, apparently “cheap” food and a runaway “choice culture”. The result is a mismatch between 24

people, food and planet. Politicians are nervous about it, but for decades they’ve ceded control to the private sector.

We must see nanotechnology for what it is: a technical cul-de-sac. It’s another way to ratchet up hidden control in the food system. It’s the nanny corporation controlling our mouths – the technology tail wagging the food dog.

How can we unlock this situation? There has to be a rebalancing of the relationship between citizens, state, science and food corporations. In the 21st century, we need to build a food system that has a lower impact on biodiversity, uses less land, and does not contribute to climate change. But we need to be engaged in this transition.

The goal ahead is to help populations eat for health and pleasure but within environmental limits. To do that, we need to recalibrate culture, not introduce another techno-fix.

Consumers need to wise up about nano.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Nanotech

Ask yourself: do you really want to eat these invisible ingredients? Can you eat a sustainable diet without them?

Of course! You can adopt a simpler diet featuring more plants and fewer processed foods. And you can encourage politicians to work on your behalf, rather than nudging us down an unnecessary path.

Take heart – many in industry are nervous too. The future is up for grabs.

Counterview: ‘Nanotechnology can make us healthier’ Food is naturally a nanostructured material.

Simply boiling an egg causes changes at a scale of mere billionths of a metre, as proteins in the white change shape and tangle together to form a solid. And many processed foods have relied on these sorts of processes for years, long before they were described as nanotechnology.

Tomato ketchup, for example, is made from tiny particles dispersed in water, while the fatty grains of powdered coffee creamer are coated with nanoparticles of silica to stop them sticking together.

But now we have the ability to study exactly what happens at that scale, and use that knowledge to design new Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

nanostructures that improve our food.

Take mayonnaise. It contains minuscule droplets of oil surrounded by a sheath of surfactants and embedded in water. By replacing the insides of that oil droplet with water, we can cut the fat content of the mayonnaise by 15% without affecting how it feels or tastes. Another product on the European market was designed to smuggle fat through your stomach and into the small intestine – once there it releases its cargo, triggering a feeling of satiety and helping people to cut their food intake.

Food researchers have also developed nano-sized capsules that can carry vitamins or other supplements added to food. Nutrients that would spoil the taste of a product are made tasteless by encapsulating them – a good way to smuggle more fish oil into your diet, for example. Hospital patients or the elderly, who may be suffering from nutrient deficiencies, could benefit from foods that are specially designed to contain more of the vitamins or minerals that they need.

Nanotechnology can also give us ways to make sure our food is safe – and to cut down on food waste. Sensors embedded 25

in food packaging could warn of chemical or bacterial contamination. These sensors could stop perfectly edible food being thrown away needlessly. Nanostructures on the surface of packets could also help to kill bacteria on contact, extending the lifetime of the food inside.

Some worry that this form of food processing is yet another way to put more power into the hands of large companies.

Yet food has never been safer than it is today, and that is largely thanks to the hygiene and sanitation practices followed by those food manufactures. Food processing is now a fact of life – it’s a romantic view to think that we can feed the 7 billion people on this planet with traditional agricultural practices. And as the population grows, so too will the importance of new food technologies.

If you eat a varied diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, you’re unlikely to need what food nanoscience can offer. But many of us do not, or cannot, eat so sensibly – and for those people, nanotechnology can help to produce food that keeps then healthier for longer.

Challenge

Original thinking: Forensic for food It’s a tough time for food manufacturers. Every week, it seems government regulators announce that some food or other is being recalled for bacterial contamination, toxins, or carcinogens. Among the recent headlines, dozens have been sickened and two have died in an outbreak linked to contaminated pastries in Rhode Island. In January, a dioxin scare halted sales of poultry, eggs, and pork from Germany. And let’s not forget radiation in Japan, oil in the Gulf, and melamine in pet food and powdered milk. If the average American never thought about food safety before, the past few years have made it abundantly clear they need to start. Fortunately, food producers and inspectors are way ahead of them.

Forensics for food: stable isotope ratio analysis Food Forensics technology is based on very sensitive science. It relies on stable isotope ratio analysis - the same technology used in archaeology, human forensics and for tracking the origin of illegal drugs.

So how to explain stable isotope ratio analysis to the laymen? “All plants and animals are made up of the nutrients and water they consume, within the water and nutrients are fingerprint signals from stable isotopes: carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, hydrogen and oxygen. Isotopes are atoms of a chemical element with a different number of neutrons in the nucleus.

Consequently, they have slightly different masses.

Stable isotopes are non radioactive, so

they do not decay over time, but physical processes - evaporation, condensation, photosynthesis - can result in isotopic fractionation, the enrichment of one isotope relative to another.

This is influenced by their geographical location, and these fractionations for a range of isotopes provide a SIRA profile - an environmental fingerprint - relative to the location and agricultural practices of the production area. We use these to build a profile of the area where they were produced.”

Determining geographical origin of food and drink The technology is currently being tested to determine the geographical origin of everything from fruits, vegetables and even alcohol. The only limitation is how 26

good the data set is.

“The technology is currently being tested to determine the geographical origin of everything from fruits, vegetables and even alcohol.”

The process works on individual components, but as soon as you start blending materials it’s very difficult to extract an individual profile. Something like a sausage roll, where you’re mixing meat with herbs and spices, makes it very difficult to tell where the meat came from.

Does anyone anticipate the technology being refined to overcome this?

“Potentially. It would require some very sophisticated techniques,” but rather than that, the testing of the raw materials, either at retail shelf - for raw products or at ingredients auditing within factories are favoured before they’re put into Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Challenge blends. That way, one can still deliver authentication.”

Can the Food Forensics technology differentiate between wild salmon and farmed? “Potentially yes, but there are other techniques that would enable that DNA, fatty acid profiling. What we can do with isotopes which they can’t do effectively in other ways is validate free range eggs. We can tell whether they’re free range and organic or colony eggs.”

to determine if cod livers were the single source of a particular brand of cod-liver oil. ‘It’s very expensive and there’s a huge temptation to cut it with rapeseed oil,’ he explains.

The fatty acid profiles for the plankton, cod, and rapeseed weren’t far apart, he recalls. But the picture changed when he looked at sterols. The sterols found in the Arctic plankton were the same as the sterols in the cod, but were not the same as the sterols in rape seeds. When he Fighting food fraud with forensic analysed the cod liver oil using HPLC he science spotted ‘there was something fishy - or not In Short quite so fishy’ going on.

• Food fraud is a growing problem that The alarm bells had rung in the first place costs the food industry hundreds of because the amount of cod liver oil leaving millions every year the processing plant was miraculously • Foods and supplements including greater than the amount of cod liver cod liver oil, aloe vera, mozzarella and coffee have been found to be adulterated • A variety of chemical techniques are available to food forensic scientists, including NMR and genetic analysis - similar to the DNA fingerprinting used in criminal cases Gone are the days of reading the words ‘olive oil’ in a recipe, and trotting down to the pharmacist for a very tiny bottle of ‘Olive Oil BP’. Today, supermarket shelves heave entering the plant. The oil turned out to be under the weight of a bewildering choice about 12 or 13 per cent rapeseed oil, says of olive oils - from a fruity Ornellaia Ottaway. (‘marvellous for salads’) to a light The perfect crime Ligurian (‘ideal for deep-fried zucchini One of the greatest problems facing this flowers’. yes, really). And it’s not just branch of criminal investigation - food olive oil. There was a time when people forensics - is that consumers can’t always bought, simply, ‘beef’ or ‘chicken’. Now tell when they’re being defrauded. The you can choose where your desired animal product might taste similar, will probably lived, or what it ate (mountain reared, corn look similar, will cost about the same, fed). And so it continues - where did the and will not necessarily do the consumer cow live that produced the milk used to any harm (apart from financially). For the make the cheese? same reason it’s difficult to say quite how The big problem’, says food scientist Peter widespread the problem is. John Spink, Berry Ottaway, a consultant at the UK director of the Packaging for Food and Institute of Food Science and Technology, Product Protection Initiative at Michigan ‘is that any high value ingredient has a risk State University, US, estimates the cost of being adulterated.’ So how are the fakes to the global food industry at $49 billion wheedled out from the genuine - free- (£25 billion). range, mountain-reared, organic - articles? Distinguishing pure from adulterated Ottaway’s work is a stark illustration of cod liver oil would certainly take an the lengths scientists must go to in order to expert consumer, and even that might be prove, or disprove, a product’s authenticity. a doddle compared with distinguishing He once travelled to the Arctic Circle in pure from adulterated bee propolis. Bee search of cod and the plankton they eat - propolis, for those not familiar with the Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

27

stock of their local health food store, is a by-product of honey production. It is a wax-like substance that bees collect from buds, and then use as a sort of cement for hive maintenance. When not blocking out drafts in beehives, propolis is a popular food supplement or ointment ingredient.

It is reputed to alleviate a long list of ailments including inflammation, viral diseases, ulcers, burns - the list goes on.

But the genuine article is not easy to identify. Propolis can be more or less any colour from green to red, and it is expensive - 25ml of a solution of unspecified concentration costs about £10 - making it a fraudster’s dream. Bees have even been known to make fraudulent propolis themselves, sometimes exploiting window putty in place of plant buds.

Forensic analysis of propolis has shown that the genuine article - not even meddled with by the bees themselves - contains distinct proportions of particular Flavonoids (plant metabolites): a discovery that could help nail genuine fraudsters, and improve propolis quality overall by flagging up the window putty varieties.

Technological revolution Fraudsters have capitalised on the variety and popularity of health products.

One study instigated at the behest of Dutch trade officials discovered that a third of products purporting to contain pure aloe Vera (a plant sap used to treat a wide variety of medical complaints) had been adulterated. The evidence for this particular study came from what was then a new chapter in food forensics: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).

Aloe vera comprises three main components: glucose; malic acid; and the polysaccharide acemannan, which is composed of a long chain of mannose monomers. On average, each mannose monomer ring has one acetate group attached to one of three available positions, explains German food scientist Berndt Diehl, who discovered that the NMR profile of these different acetate groups represented an exact fingerprint for aloe vera. Manipulation of this signal is practically impossible,’ Diehl wrote in a report of his findings back in 1998.

Today, NMR is just one of a long list

Challenge of food forensics techniques you might Union referring to the quality of the expect to find in a CSI-style forensics lab. olive oils. ‘Before such awards are given, regulations imply detailed rules on the Fingerprinting food [olive] varieties to use, the geographical Earlier this year, Italian researchers area of production, and the methods of oil reported their findings using the extraction,’ write Doveri and colleagues in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to study a report of their findings (S Doveri et al, J. mozzarella. PCR is a molecular biology Agric. Food Chem., 2006, 54, 9221). ‘As technique used to replicate and amplify these labels reflect quality, products they a small fragment of DNA. In this case, are awarded to command price premiums.’ it was used to detect and quantify rogue cow DNA in mozzarella labelled as being Plant paternity testing made from pure water-buffalo milk (R M Chemical analyses per se are not sufficient Lopparelli et al, J. Agric. Food Chem., to verify olive oil authenticity, except in 2007, 55, 3429). cases of adulteration with other vegetable Buffalo mozzarella is a highly sought-after oils. So DNA markers - unique, short Italian product certified by the European sequences of DNA that can be used to Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). identify olive cultivars - are increasingly Mozzarella can be made from cow’s milk, being applied to solve provenance issues. but it wouldn’t get PDO certification and There is a significant drawback to this, wouldn’t cost anywhere near as much because whole olive fruits are crushed in either to make or indeed to buy. This has the milling process. The stone inside each tempted food fraudsters to slip at least olive fruit is an embryo, and has almost some cow’s milk into the mix. certainly been fertilised with pollen Barbara Cardazzo and colleagues from another cultivar. ‘Questions about at the University of Padua analysed paternal DNA on the genetic profiles need 64 commercially available ‘buffalo’ to be addressed before DNA markers can mozzarellas by real-time PCR, and be used with confidence.’ found that most of the samples were After comparing the DNA in leaves, olives contaminated with cow’s milk. The and oil from a single olive tree, mostly researchers say that their PCR technique, what they showed was that DNA in a leaf looking for a cow milk-specific gene, from the olive tree didn’t match DNA in is a marked improvement on the current the oil. It’s not an insurmountable problem control method, isoelectrofocusing of because certified oils that are grown in milk proteins (separating the proteins specific regions may well have a limited, according to their net charge by passing specific, number of possible pollinators them through a gel). This can generate in which case such analysis might further inaccurate results if the cheese has been support an oil’s authenticity. But future subjected to high heats - for example, analysis might be safer if restricted to when the milk is pasteurised. specifically maternal markers - such as But PCR also needs to be applied with those found in mitochondrial DNA (which care, warn researchers at the National is only inherited from the mother).

Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge showed that the genetic profile Black or white? of olive oil isn’t necessarily the same as Another classic example that of the olive fruit. It could be a serious of an expensive food problem for anyone trying to tell if their product vulnerable to fruity Ornellaia extra virgin olive oil fraud is coffee, one of (about £10 for 50cl) really did come from the most important food the 2000 olive trees on the Ornellaia estate commodities in world in Tuscany. trade, according to Gregory A host of certification systems, like the Tucker at the University PDO enjoyed by buffalo mozzarella, of Nottingham, UK. The exist to prove the worth of olive oils - commercial coffee trade from PDO, to protected geographical consists almost entirely indication (PGI) and traditional speciality of Arabica and Robusta guaranteed (TSG). They are important coffee varieties, with awards recognised by the European Arabica considered the 28

highest quality and, naturally, the most expensive. Arabica beans cost two to three times as much as Robusta beans and constitute more than 70 per cent of the world’s coffee production - so ensuring that inferior Robusta beans don’t get into the Arabica production chain is essential.

Most current methods to discriminate between Arabica and Robusta coffees fall under the analytical/instrumental heading, says Tucker. Pure varieties are distinguished according to profiles of analytes such as sterols, fatty acids and total amino acids. Mixtures are characterised using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The beans contain different amounts of the two main coffee compounds -chlorogenic acid and caffeine - which have distinctive infrared spectra.

DNA-based analysis is new to coffee authentication, but Tucker and colleagues say their work on PCR analysis and labon-a-chip capillary electrophoresis offers a quick and straightforward method suited to routine coffee analysis.

Tucker’s team used PCR coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), where amplified DNA is cut at specific sites along its sequence - using socalled restriction endonucleases - in order to determine, in this instance, particular coffee varieties. PCR-RFLP is a classic forensic technique, equally at home in murder cases and paternity testing as it is in food authentication. It is an essential component of DNA fingerprinting.

Tucker’s method combined PCR-RFLP with capillary electrophoresis to separate individual genes and quantify adulteration in green (unroasted) coffee beans. A genetic marker in chloroplast DNA, which is maternally inherited like mitochondrial DNA, was found to differentiate Arabica from Robusta varieties.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Challenge

The forensic approach Most of the above methods are targeted procedures, only applicable to one commodity and/or one type of fraud. But effort is underway to develop more generic procedures for tracing and verifying food, by scientists. The international team of scientists within the project are developing “food mapping” procedures that will allow provenance claims to be more easily checked.

Scientists all over are attempting to link key parameters in food with those found in the local environment. By studying the climate and geology, the scientists aim to predict what profile of parameters should be expected in a food of given provenance.

It is then relatively easy to check if the actual profile of the food matches with that predicted.

Alongside food mapping, Trace is also producing spectroscopic and biological fingerprinting methods that can be used to verify food. The increased power of data capture and interpretation techniques developed in recent years allows atypical samples to be rapidly identified. This is ideal for a food verification system as it allows a more forensic approach to authenticating food.

Ten years ago there was much less media interest in food authenticity. But nowadays there’s a much more discerning consumer - who makes their purchases based on what Brereton calls ‘quality attributes’. These might be attributes that the consumer cares about deeply, but they can’t always identify unaided, such as: provenance; production (GM, organic, free range); ethical issues (animal welfare, fair trade); and sustainability (food miles).

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

There is a recent analytical method to identify corn-fed chicken - chickens that command a higher price as a result of their relatively luxurious diet. The method exploits the differences between the biosynthetic pathways that exist between maize (C4 pathway) and temperate cereals such as wheat and barley (C3 pathway). C3 and C4 plants provide markedly different 13C/12C ratios when measured using stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Comparison with a database of results from chickens fed differing maize diets provides an objective means of confirming that a chicken was fed on corn (maize).

Fool’s Protein Oftentimes, though, users never know food is contaminated until it’s too late.

Until recently, for instance, nobody tested food for melamine because they had no reason to suspect they’d find it. But that changed in 2007, when thousands of pet owners in the United States and Canada began reporting that their cats and dogs were suddenly and mysteriously falling ill and dying of acute kidney stones.

Attention quickly focused on melamine, a chemical used as a fire-retardant and in the manufacturing of plastics, which was found in high doses in certain imported Chinese pet foods. Apparently, some vendors were spiking raw ingredients with nitrogen-rich melamine to spoof the Kjeldahl protein detection assay, which uses nitrogen as a surrogate for protein content. By adding cheap melamine, these vendors could fetch a higher price for their food, as it would appear to contain more protein than it really did.

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Yet as far as researchers could tell, melamine was relatively harmless; In fact, animal studies in cats and dogs suggested they could tolerate high doses with no ill effects. Melamine and a related compound, cyanuric acid, could form aggregates in vivo. In the acidic stomach, the two compounds are soluble; under basic conditions such as the kidneys, they crash out of solution.

It is suspected vendors could have been adding melamine for years without consequence, until cyanuric acid entered the mix as well. The question was how to detect both compounds in a rapid, robust, and reliable way? After all, at the time nobody knew which pet food was dangerous, and which was safe.

Pet food samples were extracted, diluted—sometimes up to 10,000 times, he says—and separated on a zwitterionicion hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography column coupled to a triple quadrupole MS. Total analysis time: three minutes. It was quickly established which tissue samples were positive, and the tested pet food that was fed to the animals that died, and there it was—the smoking gun.”

Of course, pet food was only the beginning, the scandal expanded to include human products. According to Reuters, “at least six children died and nearly 300,000 became ill from powdered milk laced with melamine.”

Working out whether consumers are being taken for a ride looks set to focus national and international authorities and relevant experts for years to come.

‘History has taught us that wherever there is a large price difference between two similar products and no objective means of checking is available, fraud can take place.

So you might think that a professional food detective would religiously scan the supermarket shelves for reputable labels before buying. ‘No, in terms of food shopping, I tend to be a sceptic, ‘I buy based on what tastes good rather than what’s on the label.’

“For many, it’s quite scary, but what will you do? Become a vegetarian, you could be eating too many pesticides. If you eat too much fish, it could be mercury or antibiotics. So eat everything in moderation and enjoy yourself.”

News

SEA demands Maha govt to stop sale of loose edible oil

V

egetable oil industry body SEA demanded that the Maharashtra state government withdraw the recent notification that allowed sale of unpacked edible oils in smaller quantity for one year, saying that such a move would encourage sale of adulterated edible oils.

It also informed that the state has necessary infrastructure for packing of edible oils

and is capable of supplying edible oils in smaller packs in rural areas too.

For the benefit of consumers in rural areas, the Maharashtra government had on October 28 issued a notification allowing sale of loose edible oils in 100 grams, 200 grams and 300 grams for a period of one year.

“SEA has strongly requested the Maharashtra government to review the relaxation and withdraw this Notification at the earliest in the interest of health of the consumers,” the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) President Vijay Data said in a statement.

This notification will have “serious ramification on the public health as unscrupulous elements will now have free hand to indulge in malpractices by way of adulteration and also consumer could be

Farm ministry favours graded duties on edible oil imports

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s the Centre mulls a proposal to increase the import duty on refined edible oil from the current 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent to protect the domestic industry, the ministry of agriculture has favoured a graded import duty structure to align landed cost – the end cost of a shipped item – with international prices.

In the ministry’s comments on a cabinet note to raise the import duty, officials said the department of agriculture it has suggested that instead of a broad one-stroke increase or decrease, edible oil import duties should be made more flexible, whereby they would automatically go up if international edible oil prices fall by a certain level and fall as soon as international oil prices rise by a certain percentage.

“This would ensure domestic refining industry is adequately protected from duty changes in other countries and there is no ambiguity in the structure,” the official explained.

The duty differential between crude and refined edible oils should be maintained at the current level of 5 per cent, the department felt.

India previously revised the import duty on edible oils in January this year when the duty on crude oils was increased to 2.5 per cent from zero per cent, while that on refined oils was maintained at 7.5 per cent.

A final decision on the same is expected to be taken in the meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA), to whom the matter has now been referred with comments from both departments.

The CCEA could take up the issue in its meeting expected to be held soon, an official said.

India’s imports of refined edible oil has jumped by over 41 per cent in 2012-13 oil marketing year that ended in October as compared to same period last year, mainly due to inverted duty structure in Indonesia and Malaysia.

India meets more than 50 per cent of their domestic demand through imports. Palm 30

cheated on the quantity”, he said.

“Let us not forget what happened in North India in late nineties when mustard oil sold in loose was heavily adulterated that resulted into heavy loss of life,” he added.

Noting that the quality of edible oil over a period of time deteriorates, Data said that edible oil in loose form deteriorates much faster as it is continuously in contact with air and moisture. Even the packaged edible oil has a shelf life, after which it is not fit to be consumed.

The industry body SEA said the vegetable oil industry in Maharashtra has all the necessary infrastructure for packing of edible oils in 100 grams, 200 grams and 300 grams package. It is also in a position to supply the edible oils in smaller packs in rural areas too.

“In fact, edible oil like coconut oil are freely available in 100gm, 200gm and 300gm packs in Maharashtra. It is needless to mention that packaging cost is hardly 3-5% of the product cost but it ensures the quality and quantity,” the SEA added. oil is being imported from Malaysia and Indonesia, while soyabean oil from Argentina and Brazil. The food ministry, which had originally floated the idea of an increase in import duty, is of the view that such a flexible graded import duty structure for edible oils should be only limited to palm and should not be extended to other oils.

“We also feel that any flexible import duty structure should not lead to spike in domestic edible oil prices as otherwise it would be detrimental to the interests of the consumers,” another official said.

According to the World Bank, the monthly average price of palm oil in October was around $859 per tonne, while it was $820 per tonne in September and $829 per tonne in August.

The prices are much lower than 2012 (January-December) average palm oil rates of $999.3 a tonne.

In 2012-13 (November-October) edible oil year, India imported a record 10.38 million tonnes of edible oil, of which 5.88 million tonnes was crude palm oil, while 2.22 million tonnes was refined palm oil.

Whereas, in 2011-12, India imported 9.98 million tonnes of edible oils, of which crude palm oil was 5.99 million tonnes, while refined was 1.57 million tonnes.

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News

Edible Oil Outlook: Short-term spikes may not sustain

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record acreage in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh had led to a build-up in expectations of a higher soybean crop after the sowing process. However, due to very heavy rains during the pod filling stage in Madhya Pradesh and some parts of Vidarbha (Maharashtra), a larger than expected damage was caused to the soybean crop.

On account of this, we have seen a sharp drop in production, as well as quality issues in the new crop of soybean. Crushers from Madhya Pradesh are these days seeking Maharashtra’s crop due to quality issues.

The soymeal produced by the low quality crop of Madhya Pradesh has led to rejection of export shipments. At the same time, oil produced out of these low quality beans contains high free fatty acid, leading to lower realisation for the crushers in Madhya Pradesh. Soya oil availability has taken a huge hit because of the quality issues of soybean, leading to a rally in soya oil prices. Crushing of soybean produces soya oil while leaving by-products like soymeal and cakes.

Indian edible oil availability can improve as cotton crop is in great shape and supplies of cotton seed oil is likely to hit the market by the second half of this month. On the international front, India imports more than 90 per cent of its soya oil requirement from Argentina. Argentine farmers have continued to hoard a huge chunk of soybean, estimated at 17-18 million tonnes, as against seven to eight million held by them last year, leading to tight FOB (free on board) prices at Argentine ports. Expectations of a good crop in Argentina can lead to farmers releasing their hoarded stock, which can soften Argentine soya oil FOB prices.

In the short term, with the recent depreciation in the rupee, quality issues

of soybean will remain supportive for soya oil prices which can test Rs 780 per 10-kg pack. But from three-month horizon expectations, due to a surge in imports from Argentina in December and with domestic crushing likely to gain momentum, we see a cap on any major upside in soya oil prices.

On the one hand, we have seen weather woes have led to a major rally in soya oil prices. Similar is the case with crude palm oil. With weather anomalies causing harvest delays, there has been a spike in crude palm oil prices. Strong import demand from the European Union and lower stocks of palm oil have added fuel to the fire. October (data awaited) could see a drop in production by six to 10 per cent as against a rise earlier, which will be followed by a seasonal declining production trends. Though we have seen a gradual rise in stocks in September, we are still below the record stock number of 2.63 million tonnes seen last year. Malaysian

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stock piles as on September, stood at 1.78 million tonnes against 2.48 million in the corresponding time last year.

Soya oil, along with crude palm oil, accounts for a large part of India’s edible oil consumption, trading and imports.

Due to weather woes in the short-term, crude palm oil prices may also remain supportive but we are still in a high cycle of palm oil production at the moment. It’s because of excess rains and mild cyclones that we have seen harvesting delays of FFB’s (fresh fruit bunch). Going forward, the demand for palm oil is likely to see a setback in the winter season. In the short-term, rallies to the tune of Rs 580585 per 10 kg pack shouldn’t be ruled out but once the production cycle revives due to moderating weather anomalies the medium term trend shall remain bearish.

Kunal Shah is head, commodities research, Nirmal Bang Commodities, Curtsey-Business Standard

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Bunge India set to revive palm oil brand Lotus

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unge India is resurrecting the Lotus brand of palm oil, 10 years after acquiring it along with the more popular Dalda, from Hindustan Unilever.

Lotus is now being soft-launched for selling packaged palm oil in the Indian

market for institutional clients in select regions and also as a retail brand for the southern market, Dinesh Agarwal, business head for Dalda, said.

“We have plans to get into palm oil under Lotus. We would sell mostly to institutions and in some southern Indian markets we would sell to households,” Agarwal said.

While Bunge India’s current brands like Dalda, Amrit, Ginni and Gagan in a range of vanaspati, soyabean, mustard and groundnut oils cater to the retail consumer market, Lotus would be targeting the hitherto untapped market for palm oil,

a relatively cheap cooking medium mostly used by eateries and restaurants in India, he said. Consumption of palm oil, in fact, is highest among all edible oils in the country followed by soya bean and mustard oil.

“We have just started production at Kandla and supplying to the northern markets, mostly to the business-tobusiness segment in bulk packaging.”

Bunge in India is now focusing on expanding the range of edible oils under its flagship Dalda brand with an aim to cover almost all cooking mediums used in every part of the country by March.

“We are now launching soya bean, mustard, groundnut and sunflower oil constituting 85% of country’s consumption basket. And by March we would be getting into the rest 15%, which includes oils from rice bran, sesame, coconut, olive and also cotton seed,” Agarwal said.

Bunge need to expand its portfolio as vanaspati is now suffering average yearly de-growth of about 4%.

Vegetable oils imports remain stable at about Rs 55,000 cr in 2012-13

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ndia’s vegetable oils imports remained stable at about Rs 55,000 crore in 201213 marketing year ended last month despite five per cent growth in volume as global prices softened, according to industry body SEA. Vegetable oil import rose by 4.77 per cent at record 10.68 million tonnes during 201213 marketing year (November- October) against 10.19 million tonnes (MT) in previous year due to stagnant domestic production and rising consumption.

“We imported veregtable oils worth Rs 55,000 crore in 2012-13 oil year, which is similar to the previous year’s level.

Global rates were lower by 15 per cent, compensating increase in volume,” Solvent Extractors’ Association Executive Director B V Mehta told.

India meets more than 50 per cent of their domestic demand through imports.

Palm oil is being imported from Malaysia and Indonesia, while soyabean oil from

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Argentina and Brazil.

Edible oil imports rose to 10.39 MT in 2012-13 from 9.98 MT in the previous year. Imports of non-edible oils increased to 2,93,534 tonnes, from 2,11,098 tonnes, during the period under review.

Besides rising demand and stagnant domestic output, SEA attributed the rise in imports of vegetable oils to inverted duty structure by Indonesia and Malaysia that led to sharp jump in imports of refined palm oil.

Domestic production of vegetable oils was stagnant at 8.09 MT compared to 8.15 MT in previous year.

“Local consumption of edible oils further increased due to increase in per capita consumption (3 per cent) and population growth (1.76 per cent). Also lower price of vegetable oils boosted the consumption,” the association had said in a statement last week.

Import of refined palmolein during April 33

to October’13 jumped to over 1.6 million tonne compared to 7,50,000 tonne during the same period of last year.

“Import of edible oil has sharply increased and nearly doubled in six years due to stagnant oilseed production and rising demand. Refined RBD Palmolein tripled in last six years,” SEA said.

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Post-harvest loss in foodgrains at 6%: ICAR

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ost-harvest loss in foodgrains in India worked out to six per cent and 18 per cent in case of fruits and vegetables, a top official in the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) said.

S K Nanda, Project Coordinator, All India Coordinated Research Project, ICAR, Ludhiana, said about two per cent loss of food grains was accounted for storage done by farmers for seed purpose He was speaking after inaugurating a 21-day training programme on ‘recent advances in stored product insect pest management’ at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here.

Appreciating TNAU for having released eight insect trap devices to control storage insect pests of food grains, he said the storage insect egg removing device would be considered for adoption by farmers at the national level in the 12th plan through 100 Krishi Vigyan Kendras.

K Ramaraju, Director, Plant Protection, TNAU, said 14-17 million tonnes of foodgrains are lost due to storage pests, which if prevented could feed one-third of the population.

About 15 insects had ben identified as major pests of stored grains in India and eight, including rice weevil and pulse beetle were found to be major insect pests in Tamil Nadu, he said.

Twenty five agricultural scientists from 10 states are participating in the programme.

States told to build block-level godowns for grains under food law

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he Centre directed State Governments to take immediate steps for constructing intermediary godowns at block level under the rural employment guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, to ensure additional storage facilities for effective implementation of the National Food Security Law. In a joint letter to all Chief Ministers, the Union Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh, and Food Minister, K V Thomas, said States can construct intermediary godowns through the scheme.

“We request you to take immediate steps to identify locations in each block where storage is needed, identify land required and ensure that works are taken up under MGNREGA after following the due process laid down under the MNREG Act, 2005,” the letter said.

It said Schedule—I of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act had just been expanded to include construction of foodgrain storage facilities for implementation of the food law and expressed hope that the decision would help in creation of additional food storage

India gets bids above floor price for wheat exports

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he traders received bids above the floor price for wheat exports, trade sources said, reflecting good response after a cut in the floor price intended to boost shipments from the world’s second-biggest grower.

Last month, the government cut the floor by $40 a tonne to $260 for supplies from government stocks, to make exports more attractive to the West Asia and neighbours such as Bangladesh.

The three state-run trading companies had all failed to sell in the last round of global tenders in October, when the $300 floor made Indian wheat expensive in comparison to rival supplies from the Black Sea. In tenders, PEC Ltd received the highest bid at $290 per tonne for its offerings on the west 36

facilities for “effective implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013”.

The Government said such intermediate storage at the grassroots level, apart from being a primary component in the entire supply chain, would also help reduce leakages considerably.

“We expect that these facilities are built by the line departments or Zilla/Blck panchayats, the wage:material ratio (60:40) will apply at the block level,” the letter said.

The Centre’s direction came, days after it announced its decision to set up intermediary godowns, which are generally created at block level, for efficient and smooth distribution of foodgrain via public distribution system.

The Government said it had long felt the need for the creation of intermediate storage facility at zilla/block/ village panchayat levels. The State Governments are required to provide land, while the Centre will bear the entire construction cost.

At present, in many States, foodgrains are lifted from Food Corporation of India storage depots and sent directly to the fair price shops, resulting in 25-30 per cent leakage and pilferage. coast for shipment in December, while State Trading Corp. and MMTC Ltd recorded bids of $286 a tonne in their respective tenders.

“Indian supplies have become on par with Black Sea origin,” said Tejinder Narang, adviser at New Delhi-based trading company Emmsons International.

Traders said supplies from the Black Sea were available at $280-$290 a tonne FoB. They said Indian wheat was benefiting from expectations that global prices would rise next year as supplies from the Black Sea fell.

The Indian government stuck to its floor price of $300 until last month after managing to export nearly 4.5 million tonnes between August 2012 to March 2013 as part of its strategy to cut huge stockpiles.

On November 1, India’s wheat stocks stood at 34 million tonnes, three times more than the target for the Oct-Dec quarter.

The high level of stocks at government warehouses, boosted by a series of bumper harvests since 2007, has forced the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI), the main grain procurement agency, to store wheat under tarpaulins.

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Warehousing plays major role in implementing food security: Food minister

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he Food Security Bill provides food grains to about 82 crore people across the country and there is a strong need to ensure sufficient warehouses to ensure that the grains reach the intended targets. “For this, we will need space to store over 85 million tonnes of grain by 2014,” said K V Thomas, minister of state, consumer affairs and food and public distribution, government of India. “In 2009, we had space for 55 million tonnes, and today, we are only at 78 million tonnes.”

The minster was giving the inaugural address at a conference on “Building Warehousing Competitiveness - 2013: Maximising Returns Through Capital and Operating Efficiencies”, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Institute of Logistics in Mumbai.

Thomas emphasised that warehousing was an important sector in the context of implementing the food security, which act the government adopted earlier this year.

He urged entrepreneurs to take up the task of building warehouses, even though it was not lucrative enough. “Warehouses should have the support of government and I believe banks give out special loans for building warehouses because as an industry, we have to grow and India needs Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

more warehouses,” he averred.

He said the government was even thinking of allowing village panchayats to build intermediate warehouses, which will bring storage areas close to the recipients. He pointed out that one of the major reasons for leakages in the public distribution system was due to the lack of warehouses, which led to food grains rotting. “To distribute rice at Rs 5 per kg, the government spends Rs 28. This is a crime,” he said, but added that he was confident the leakages could be plugged.

Deviating from his written speech, the minister said India was moving from a welfare state to a rights-based country.

“The first step in this direction was the Right to Information act. This is a new and positive turn,” he added.

Thomas said the RTI was followed by laws on right to work (the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), the Right to Education, and finally, the Food Security Act. But he added that there was some concern whether India could produce sufficient food grains, but added that India would have enough not just to feed the entire nation but also have some surplus for the export market.

Moving beyond warehousing, the minister said on reason for the high prices of 37

food was because the government had maintained a high “minimum support price” (MSP, the price at which the government purchases food grains from the farmers). “We can’t sell below the MSP,” he said.

Thomas complained that some traders had taken advantage of the onion trade to jack up prices, and said the government was aware of their actions and would act if necessary. In his written speech, the minister said logistics companies need to be efficient in their operations and mechanise operations to the extent possible so as to achieve cost savings and reduce losses.

He said India’s soon to be expanded national highway network, improved efficiencies in rail cargo network schemes such as airport expansion, and the Golden Quadrilateral would ensure improved efficiencies in road and rail transport besides reducing delays and losses.

Speaking at the event, B S Vasudev, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai zone, pointed out that businessmen could use custom warehouses where goods could be stored for up to one year without the payment of customs duty. “For the first three months we don’t even charge interest on the goods stored,” he said. The senior customs officer said such warehouses could be set up either by importers or by those in the warehouse business.

He urged the captains of industry present that if ever their complaints were not being addressed, they should immediately escalate their complaint to the next level, and if needed, till the highest level. “Let me assure you, our officers are always there to help,” he asserted.

B Narayan, group president, Procurement and Projects, Reliance Industries Ltd, shared his experience about the difficulty of storing and transporting liquid such as crude, and strongly advocated automation.

“Automation ensures efficiency, because warehousing work is routine and monotonous and people get bored, and it helps you know exactly how much inventory is there in the warehouse,” he said.

Aman Khanna, Associate Director, Ernst & Young Pvt Ltd, said the warehousing sector has huge potential, but that many in the sector were still not doing too well. He also said there is a dire need for higher end warehouses in the country.

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News

India Poised to Resume Wheat Exports

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ndia is set to resume wheat exports after receiving strong price bids for export tenders issued by state trading agencies, a move that would likely weigh on global prices as one of the world’s largest producers looks to reduce pressure on its overflowing granaries.

The South Asian country was forced to cut the minimum export price for wheat to $260 a ton from $300 in late October after having failed to attract any buyers in a previous tender.

This time around, state-run trading companies have received an overwhelming response to their tenders to export 340,000 metric tons of wheat with all price bids qualifying in the latest tender. Global prices had fallen after India had cut the minimum export price.

State Trading Corp. received seven bids for exporting 120,000 tons with Agri

Commodity and Finance of Dubai quoting the highest price, $286.20 a ton. The lowest offer came in at $278, according to company executives and traders.

PEC Ltd. received four bids between $289.90 and $273.10 a ton for shipments

of 70,000 tons from the eastern port of Krishnapatnam. It received six bids ranged from $284.70 to $268 a ton for shipments of 90,000 tons from the western port of Kandla.

State-run MMTC Ltd. received five bids, priced between $285.95 and $260 a ton, for 60,000 tons.

India had emerged as one of the biggest wheat exporters over the past year-andhalf following a global shortage because of a drought in Eastern Europe. During this period, it sold 4.2 million tons of the grain at an average price of $311 a ton, about $10 above the cost it incurred for procuring it from farmers.

However, its strong run was threatened because of a fall in global prices. But, wheat prices have started firming up again because of strong demand from countries such as Egypt.

“I think India is now well-positioned to export again as the government would likely approve most of the exportprice bids in the latest tender,” said a senior Mumbai-based executive with an international trading company.

India may produce record wheat output this year: Agriculture Secretary

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he country’s wheat production this year is likely to surpass the previous record of 94.88 million tonnes on better coverage and good weather condition, Agriculture Secretary Ashish Bahuguna said.

Production of gram, mustard seed and barley output may also exceed the Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

previous record if farmers receive onetwo good spells of rains next month, he added.

India, the world’s second-biggest wheat grower, had produced a record 94.88 million tonnes of wheat in the 2011-12 crop year (July-June), buoyed by a good monsoon. Poor rains in 2012-13 lowered the output to 92.46 million tonnes.

“As of now, rabi (winter) crop prospect is very good. Weather condition, soil moisture and water levels in reservoirs is better and ideal for wheat and other rabi crops. If weather condition remains good throughout, wheat production should be a record this year,” Mr Bahuguna told.

Although wheat sowing has been slightly delayed but area coverage so far has been better than last year, he said.

According to official data, wheat has been sown in 4.15 lakh hectares till last week, as against 83,000 hectares in the same period last year. Total area sown for all 39

rabi crops has also increased to 65 lakh hectares, which is three times higher than achieved during the same period of last year.

Wheat is a major Rabi crop sowing of which begins from October end and harvesting from April.

Mr Bahuguna said: “There will be more area under wheat and other crops.

Yields are also expected to be better with adoption of better varieties. But we have to see weather condition in March, which would be crucial for wheat crop.”

As far as other crops are concerned, he said, “If we get one or two spells of rains in December, then definitely it would be a record crop for mustard, gram and barely also.”

The government has set a rabi production target of 12 million tonnes for pulses, 14 million tonnes for rice, 4.4 million tonnes for maize and 1.5 million tonnes for barley.

News

Iran Imports $1.2 Billion Worth Of Rice From India

India poised to achieve self-sufficiency in pulses

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n total, Iran imported $5.1 billion worth of rice in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year which started March 21, an official with the Trade Promotion Organisation of Iran said.

“Iran’s imports from India accounted for $2.1 billion of the aforementioned amount,” the IRNA News Agency quoted Morad Nemati as saying.

“Iran’s rice imports from India have been doubled in that period compared to the same time of the previous year,” he said.

The Commercial Attaché of the Embassy of Iran in India said on November 12 that Tehran’s exports to New Delhi stood at $2.1 billion in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (which started on March 21).

Iran exports 10 products to India, the IRNA News Agency quoted Seyed Reza Seyed-Aghazadeh as saying.

“Urea, methanol, ammoniac, industrial oil, iron and steel, aluminium, tar and sulphur make up the country’s main exported items,” he said.

“Iran also imported $9.1 billion worth of staple foods such as rice, meat and sugar from India in the same period,” SeyedAghazadeh added.

mid expectations of a record rabi crop due to good monsoon rains, adequate soil moisture and a rise in the groundwater table, India is set to record self-sufficiency in pulses this year.

The first advance estimate of the ministry of agriculture for 2013-14 pegged kharif production at 6.01 million tonnes (mt), a two per cent increase compared with 5.91 mt the previous year. The India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) estimates production of kharif pulses at seven mt this year. “We estimate rabi pulses output to rise five-10 per cent. This year, agro climatic conditions have been very supportive, especially in major producing states such as Rajasthan,” said Bimal Kothari, vice-chairman of IPGA. “We are expecting exceptionally good rabi production of both pulses and oilseeds this year due to favourable climatic conditions. A good monsoon, followed by intermittent extended season rainfalls, turned the climate in favour of pulses. India is moving gradually ahead to become self-sufficient in terms of pulses this year. However, the actual output would determine trade,” said Ashok Gulati, chairman of the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, which decides the minimum support price (MSP) for agriculture commodities. The rabi season accounts for about 70 per cent of India’s pulses production. Against an estimated overall production of 18.45 mt in 2012-13, India’s annual pulses 40

consumption stands at 20 mt; the deficit is bridged through imports.

A substantial rise in the MSP for pulses helped farmers increase acreage for the crop. Two years ago, the government had raised the MSP for tur and urad to Rs 4,300 a quintal from Rs 3,200 and Rs 3,300 a quintal, respectively. This year, the MSP for moong was raised from Rs 3,500 a quintal to Rs 4,500 a quintal.

This year, kharif pulses acreage surged to 10.2 million hectares, compared with 8.8 million hectares last year. It is expected the rabi acreage would stand at a record high this year.

Due to the recent appreciation of the rupee against the dollar, the import of pulses has slowed. With an estimated 10 per cent increase in domestic output, India would comfortably meet its demand of 20 mt. “To maintain a fair trade balance, the government must allow the export of pulses. While imports are allowed, exports are banned. This is an unfair trade practice that should be stopped immediately,” Gulati said.

This year, the harvesting of kharif pulses and the sowing of the rabi crop have progressed well so far. Despite the prices of chana, the largest rabi crop, being lower than the MSP through most of this year, it is expected farmers would aggressively increase the acreage for this crop this season, as chana is grown in small and marginal land, which is unfit for other crops.

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Agri ministry proposes import duty on pulses

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he ministry of agriculture has proposed a steep hike in import dutyfor pulses in the range of 2030%. The proposal is being discussed with the department of revenue.

This move has been triggered as traders are importing pulses and selling them at prices lower than those quoted by domestic producers.

According to market sources, traders are importing pulses from Myanmar (Burma) at prices far cheaper than that in the domestic market and selling it to state trading agencies at minimum support price (MSP). According to industry data, reportedly, traders are importing tur at Rs 3,300-3,500 per quintal from Myanmar

currently, while domestic prices are ruling at Rs 4,300 per quintal.

Prices of some varieties like gram and urad are quoting even below their respective MSPs in many markets.

Currently, the import duty on pulses is zero.

With the increase in minimum support price, pulses production has increased and so is the availability in the domestic market.

Pulses’ imports are being permitted at zero duty since 2006 to ensure availability in the domestic market. India, the largest producer of pulses, imports about three million tonne of lentils every year to fulfil its domestic demand. Pulses and oilseeds are among the major components of India’s annual food import.

India lags in fight against trans fats in packaged food

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proposal by the US Food and Drug Administration to ban trans fatsin processed food has put the spotlight on this food category.

A number of countries in Europe such as Switzerland and Denmark have similar strictures in place. However, India is far behind in the fight against trans fats in packaged food, considered bad for the heart.

Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said India had no regulation related to trans fats in packaged food. “Instead, there are mere labelling requirements,”

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he says. “In packaged food products where the amount of trans fat is less than 0.2 gm per serving, manufacturers are allowed to label it as trans fat-free.

For products in which trans fat exceeds 0.2 gm a serving, the manufacturer has to disclose it contains trans fats. This is hardly enough.”

Worse, he says, most manufacturers take advantage of the lax labelling rules to reduce the serving size, ensuring the amount of trans fats is less than the permissible limit. “We have seen packs of Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujia that say these weigh only 10 gm. Who consumes 10 gm of Aloo Bhujia? Obviously, a consumer eats more. Some Lays packs (from PepsiCo) say these weigh 14 gm, which is equivalent to five chips. Do you eat five chips? I don’t think so,” Bhushan says.

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The central government last month once again reimposed stock limits on state holding of pulses and edible oil in order to prevent hoarding of such essential commodities by bulk users.

Meanwhile, all ministries concerned – food and agriculture have recommended for a hike in import duty of refined palm oil from existing 7.5% to 10%.

The import duty on crude palm oil will continue to remain at 2.5%. This is to discourage excessive import of refined oil into the Indian market. Edible oil imports in 2013-14 crop marketing year should be around 2012-13 level of 10 million tonne, estimated officials.

According to the Economic Outlook for 2013-14, the Prime minister’s economic advisory council (PMAEC) pegged the output of pulses to be over 20 million tonne in 2013-14. In 2012-13, India had produced 18.45 million tonne of pulses, the best so far.

Dillip Kumar Samantaray, chief executive of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Consumer activists say a few years ago, the food safety regulator had prescribed norms for trans fats in vegetable oils, but these weren’t notified.

The World Health Organization recommends in a balanced diet, trans fats account for one per cent of total energy. An adult male can have 2.6 gm of trans fats a day, an adult female 2.1 gm and a child of 10-12 years 2.3 gm. Daily consumption of salt by an individual should be limited to five-six gm.

Last year, CSE had released a study analysing specific fast-food and snack brands. It said these contained dangerous levels of trans fats and salt.

The study showed a Happy Meal at McDonald’s could provide 90 per cent of a child’s trans fat requirement for a day, implying the level of trans fat in these products was high. This was also true for KFC’s Fried Chicken and other such snacks analysed by CSE. McDonald’s, Yum (which controls KFC) and other packaged food manufacturers whose products were analysed by CSE denied there were high levels of trans fats in their products. They said their products were compliant with FSSAI regulations.

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RIL to revive Fruits-vegetables sector Falta food faces multiple challenges: Exim Bank processing venture in T Bengal, invest Rs 1000 crore

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he Mamata Banerjee government couldn’t have expected a better Diwali gift.

After a big-bang comeback in Bengal with a Rs 3000-crore 4G rollout plan, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is all set to revive the Falta food processing venture that it was forced to abandon in 2009 following political turmoil.

According to a source close to the development, RIL will invest over Rs 1,000 crore in the Falta project.

The move sets aside unease in government circles over RIL’s Bengal plans ever since the corporate giant failed to bid for Haldia Petrochemicals last month.

“Reliance had paid for the land long back. There was some construction as well,” a source close to the development said.

Industries minister Partha Chatterjee told the government has urged RIL to set up projects in Falta and Malda, where the group has around 65 acres.

“Reliance has proposed a joint inspection at Falta. We have informed the district authorities about this.

They will submit a detailed project report within 30 days of this,” said P K Mondal, the CEO of WBIIDC. Reliance officials couldn’t be contacted for comment but sources close to the company said it has already conveyed to the government that it wants to revive the project.

he Indian fruits and vegetables production faces multiple challenges across the value chain from the supply side to the demand side, according to a study released by EXIM Bank of India.

The study was conducted with an aim to examine the factors responsible for India’s low share of in the world trade of fruits and vegetables. This is despite being the second biggest producer of fruits and vegetables.

“At production level, the major challenge is low productivity, while at post production stage, the wastage rate is very high”, it said. The study noted that average productivity of most domestic fruit and vegetable crops is low compared to international standards.

There is a wide gap between existing and potential yields. This can be narrowed through improved varieties and technologies. Some areas of concern are water management, quality seed development, pest and diseases management and technology suitability for small and marginal land holdings.

While admitting that there are problems facing the Indian fruits and vegetables sector, Siraj Hussain, Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, said that India also has several success stories. “We have put up a reasonably good supply chain in grapes, apples and now bananas”.

But these successes have not been replicated in other fruits and vegetables, he said.

According to the study, estimated wastage in India ranges from 11 per cent in mangoes to as high as 90 per cent in tomatoes. This has resulted in low marketable surplus and low trade in the 42

sector. Some other contributors are slow development of post-harvest technologies and their dissemination.

Total existing cold storage capacity in India is only 10.4 per cent of the total production of fruits and vegetables, it said. Of this total, 75 per cent caters to potatoes and around 24 per cent is used for meat and dairy, leaving only a miniscule capacity for fruits and vegetables.

The study stressed the need for production and post production management, international quality compliance, and marketing strategies for development of the export market. The report said that the analyses of production, productivity and major fruit and vegetable trade reveal three areas that the country needs to work on - “productivity improvement through technological interventions, reduction of wastage through efficient postharvest management and diversification of markets through development of customized products.”

TCA Ranganathan, CMD of EXIM Bank said India is not realizing its potential in the fruits and vegetables space. “We need to go five steps forward to meet all the challenges,” he said.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

News

Is Guar Gum’s dream run nearing its end?

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hola Ram, a farmer from Bhandhu Khedi in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, is in a sticky situation. The 45-year-old farmer cultivates guar, a cash crop. Guar gum, which is used in shale gas exploration, is produced from guar seeds. Ram used to get good returns on his produce, as there was a huge demand from gum manufacturers.

But, what worries him now is, this year in 2013 demand for his priced crop has plummeted. When things were good from 2007-2012, Ram, who used to cultivate guar in two acres, scaled it up to about six acres.

With few takers, he is sitting on a stock of about 20 quintals of guar beans, which he had saved for selling in the lean season.

“Till last year, I could get even around Rs 30,000 for a quintal of guar seed. But, this year, the prices have not even reached Rs 6,000, although the period between October and December is the peak season for guar trade,” the farmer said. Having burnt his fingers, Ram says he would be “careful” in future.

According to Rajasthan government’s figures, guar seed was grown in about 3.5 million hectares in 2013. The state contributes to about 80% of the total guar production in the country.

Thanks to high profitability, more farmers started growing guar. The state’s guar seed production has gone up from 12.61 lakh tonnes in 2008-09 to 20.23 lakh tonnes in 2012-13 -- an increase of about 61%. The guar is sown in August and harvested in October.

Ram’s dilemma is shared by Prakash Mal Jain of Nutritious Agro Food, a Jodhpurbased guar gum manufacturer and consultant.

Jain set up two guar seed processing units each with 10-tonne capacity. However, with orders drying up, he has been forced to shut down one and is running the other in reduced capacities.

“We operate the unit only when there is an order. We failed to read the market correctly and hoped that good times will continue for long, but were so many others in and around Jodhpur.” Jodhpur is the main business centre for guar trade There are about 250 seed processing and Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

gum-making units in two main industrial estates of Marudhara and Boranada, most of whom are staring at a uncertain future.

“Fresh demands are drying up as guar gum buyers are looking for cheaper alternatives,” said Jain. He said in many cases farmers too are reluctant to sell their produce as they believe that prices would again reach the astronomical highs seen last year.

THE DREAM RUN It was around 2005-06 that guar gum started getting the attention of both domestic and international players because of its new found usage among shale gas explorers who used it for a process called fracking.

From a low of around Rs 2,000-2,500 per quintal all of a sudden guar seeds became a priced commodity peaking at a price of almost Rs 26,000-30,000 per quintal in 2012-13.

High profits attracted more players into the trade, and in no time the number of processing units increased from 50-60 to about 500 in the state. “Around the same time, the Boranada industrial area was being set up. So, manufacturers who wanted to expand their trade and new entrants shifted their operations to Boranada,” said Bheru Jain, CEO of Rajasthan Gum Private Ltd. “Every Tom, Dick and Harry who had some money invested in guar processing, as returns were lucrative and the investment was minimal. This lead to a massive over capacity,” Bheru said. The cost of setting up a processing unit with a capacity of 8-10 tonnes per day requires an initial investment of around Rs 4 crore, while a guar powder making unit of the same capacity requires an investment of around Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 crore.

In the hindsight, Bheru thinks expanding the capacity was not a good decision. “We hoped that shale gas industry will continue to maintain their demand for the next 4-5 years. It seems the boom is showing signs of tapering off,” Bheru said.

He said units, which have a capacity to crush around 10,000 tonnes of guar seeds per day, are processing, on an average, just Rs 2,500 tonnes a day.

So, who is threatening to end the dreamrun for the domestic guar gum industry? P. 43

K. Hissaria, managing director of Sunita Hydrocolloids and president of Indian Guar Gum Manufacturers Association, said cheap thickening agents from China should be blamed for Indian traders’ plight.

“Carboxymethyl cellulose (cellulose gum) and xanthan gum -- which like guar gum were earlier used only in food items -- have found their way into the oil industry as well,” Hissaria said.

He said though the alternatives are priced on par with guar gum or slightly more, when the supply rises prices would fall. This will lead to further drop in demand of Indian gum, signs of which are already visible as international buyers are no longer willing to quote high price for Indian guar.

“It’s not that guar trade will come to a close, as most of the new units and expansions were funded by internal accruals, but this churning will remove the grain from the chaff,” he said.

THE FUTURE Guar gum exports surged from Rs 2,938.70 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 21,287 crore in 201213, mainly due to a strong demand from gas exploration companies in the US and Europe.

It even upstaged the Basmati rice as India’s Number One farm product for export.

But thereafter lies, the catch, in the first four months of 2013-14, India exported around 0.21 million tonnes of guar gum at a price of around Rs 5,729.24 crore. Whereas, during the same period last year, exports were around 0.16 million tonnes, worth Rs 12,651 crore, a whopping 55% drop in value.

Hissaria said the industry needs to restructure and look for alternative usages of guar gum, apart from its traditional use in the food industry. For farmers too, there are very few crops which give high returns like guar, he added.

“The cost of producing a quintal of guar is around Rs 8,000 and if we get only Rs 5,0006,000 a quintal we might gradually shift to other crops like moong,” said S.R. Mirdha, another farmer from Bhandhu Khedi.

However, the processors and traders disagree with the perception. “Guar is still a lucrative crop for growers as no other crop gives you a price of Rs 5,000-5,500 per quintal. Though prices have softened this year, they are still better than what it used to be four-five years ago,” said J. P. Saraswat, a commission agent of Dalal Shakti Trading Company in Jodhpur’s biggest guar mandi in Bhagat Ki Kothi.

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When Cadbury replaced its eclairs

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he announcement is emphatic Cadbury Eclairs is now Cadbury Choclairs. For the last few months, ads declaring this have been running on television day in and day out. The message is clear - the soft, creamy, caramel candy with a chocolate filling that many Indians have grown up on - has a new name.

The road ahead, however, is not expected to be easy, given the equity of Cadbury Eclairs as a brand which remains high in India.Mondelez, the parent, recently, was asked to remove three of its Chocolate Eclairs label trademarks by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board following a case lodged by rival ITC. However, Choclairs also has a key attribute: It does not stick. Stickiness has been the biggest bane of the Rs 800-crore eclairs category. While Cadbury, now Mondelez, was among the first to launch its eclairs brand in 1971, eating habits over the years have chipped away at the preference for eclairs.

Though eclairs, like toffee, remains strong in semi-urban and rural areas due to its affordability, in cities, experts say, the candy is no more consumed with the same relish as it was earlier. This has partly to do with the wide variety of options that are now available within confectionery a nearly Rs 5,000-crore category - from chewy dragees such as Mentos (Perfetti

Van Melle) to liquid-filled gums such as Centrefresh and Centre Fruit (Perfetti Van Melle) to mints, hard-boiled candies, lollipops, jellies, digestive candies, bubble gums and chewing gums. All these products are available between 50 paise and Rs 2, implying that the fight for consumer mindspace is increasingly putting pressure on companies to come up with innovative offerings.

A Ferrero spokesperson, which manufactures and markets Tic Tac mint, says consumers have been increasingly seeking “higher order benefits” in the confectionery they consume. “As a category, confectionery continues to evolve, with innovation in formats and flavours growing,” the spokesperson says.

Eclairs’ tendency to stick to teeth and gums was an irritant during consumption, increasingly so amid new formats that were being introduced. Mondelez has now launched its course correction. As Amit Shah, associate vice-president, powdered beverages, gum & candy, Cadbury India, says, “We are using this opportunity to improve the product further and address the stickiness quotient, which has been reduced significantly.”

The move to rebrand Eclairs also comes at a time when Mondelez has been looking to introduce its global products in India.

Shah says, “We hold the global copyrights 44

for Choclairs and, hence, we thought the time is right to introduce it in India to align with the international brand identity of the candy.”

Giving up the old Following the $19.7-billion acquisition of British chocolate maker Cadbury Plc by then-Kraft Foods (now Mondelez) in 2010, the latter had integrated brands like Oreo, Tang and Toblerone, which were distributed by local players in India, into the former’s system. Choclairs will, in effect, be the first product in three years to be brought to India from the multinational’s global portfolio.

Shah says, “With Choclairs, we continue to keep the momentum going further to improve the product. We are confident of our latest product renovation that it will make the consumer’s experience with the brand much more enjoyable.” Consumer queries, he claims, at retail stores, have been on the rise following launch of the Choclairs campaign a few months ago.

But Mondelez, interestingly, has not completely exited eclairs, having retained the trademark for Cadbury Dairy Milk, even as it lost the label for three other products.

In the last few years, most confectioners in India have launched eclair variants of key brands in a bid to differentiate themselves in a category where the format remains largely the same across the board.

With the use of Choclairs, Mondelez is looking to not only dip into Cadbury’s chocolate heritage, but also rise above the clutter created by a bevy of eclairs.

Rivals have begun emulating this strategy. Mondelez was recently granted a temporary injunction by the Delhi High Court preventing Lotte, the Korean confectionery giant, which makes the popular Lotte Chocopie, from using the Choclairs brand name in the Indian market.

Mondelez claimed that Lotte was passing off products in violation of the trademark it had on Choclairs, prompting it to move court. While Lotte was not immediately available for comments, Mondelez says that it will challenge and refute all of the former’s claims and allegations pertaining to Choclairs in court. Clearly, the last has not been said on this matter.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

RIL to enter the Chicken Business

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“GENERALLY RECOGNIZED AS SAFE”

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eliance Industries Limited (RIL) is causing quite a stir in the market as it announced its intention to start and operate an exclusive chicken restaurant chain in India. Mukesh Ambani, through Reliance Retail has bought a 45 percent stake Two Sisters Food India(TSFI); a subsidiary of England basedTwo Sisters Food Group Ltd (2SFG). 2SFG, run by Ranjit Singh Boparan, is basically a chicken products company. Confirming the move, a source close to the development told that the JV is setting up a plant to process chicken, fish and meat products. “Reliance Retail has already invested in a state-of-the-art food innovation lab to support new products,” he said.

2SFG supply retail chains, food processing and service industries in Europe with meat, chicken and fish products. The new alliance plans to enter the highly lucrative QSR (Quick service restaurant) segment in India and sell only chicken products. The new restaurant chain will be christened, ‘Chicken Came First.’2SFG is based in the Asian heartland of England – Birmingham. It was established in 1993 and has grown from a local brand to a truly international one. The company has manufacturing installations all over Europe including ones in Netherlands,

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Ireland and Poland. The company employs over 24,000 people and generated sales of 3 billion pounds last year. 2SFG was ranked 19th on the 2013 Sunday Times Top Track 100.

TSFI will supply Reliance Retail with chilled and frozen chicken products to begin with. After this, the Reliance Retail and TFSI joint venture, Chicken Came First will begin operations. This chain of restaurants will hope to make early in-roads into the Rs. 7,000 crore food services market and will stand out of the crowd with its specialized menu that caters specifically to the Indian consumer. The fact that MukeshAmbani owned Reliance Retail venturing into the QSR segment is not a surprising one; the sector is expected to grow at 30% YoY and would represent a very healthy revenue stream and could generate huge profits. It’s interesting to note that MukeshAmbani is backing this venture even though he is a vegetarian.

This is a clear sign of it being a purely business-based decision.

The local QSR market is dominated by globally present brands. This market, at 63%, or 3,400 crore, projected to grow by 30% due to growth in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. CRISIL estimates annual spending on restaurants in these cities to grow by up to 150% to Rs 3,750 crores per home.

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t has been more than half a century since U.S. regulations governing food additives were last revised. In that time, the number of chemicals in the food supply has risen from fewer than 2,000 to an estimated 10,000, many of which are never reviewed by the FDA. Under loose regulations created more than 50 years ago to help companies avoid lengthy delays in getting food additives approved, the FDA created a list of products considered “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS).

Companies can either petition to get their ingredients affirmed safe by the FDA, or they can declare them safe based on their own research or that of hired consultants. The FDA has the option to challenge such declarations.

The FDA’s Hamburg said in an interview that while the GRAS system provides the current legal framework for regulating food additives, the system bears reexamining to see if it is adequate to ensure the safety of the food supply.

“We do need to be thinking about what is needed to update laws and processes,” she said.

The agency is already under pressure to ban the use of caffeine in energy drinks. Caffeine was long ago declared to be a GRAS product in cola-type drinks. Yet the agency has not challenged companies to prove the safety of caffeine in other products or other beverages.

“Caffeine is one we are looking at very seriously,” Hamburg said, adding that the agency hosted a major meeting of experts over the summer under the auspices of the independent Institute of Medicine.

“It’s an ongoing process but one in which we are deeply engaged.”

News

Huge opportunities in Indian food processing Segment-FICCI-KPMG

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he Indian food value chain is on the verge of a great transformation - from one characterised by high wastage, low processing and low global contribution to one that is more streamlined, more integrated and more significant in the global trade, according to a Ficci-KPMG report on ‘Enhancing Competitiveness of Indian Food Chain’.

The report, released at the inaugural session of the Ficci’s Food 360 seminar, says the opportunities in the food processing industry are significant and expected to reach a size of Rs 400,000 crore by FY15 contributing to around 6.5 percent to the GDP. The vast Indian agri business market has also triggered a surge in private

equity (PE) placements and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the past few years.

Over 2008-2012, private equity (PE) investments in agri business have grown to 3.8 percent in 2012 from 0.2 percent in 2008. During the same period, venture capital (VC) investments in agri business grew from 0.2 percent to 1.6 percent of the total investments. Agri-logistics is the other area that has been attracting a lot of attention from investors with over $ 60 million invested just in 2012, the report pointed out.

“Continuous financial and regulatory support from government, increasing participation of private and public corporates, and increasing exposure of foreign players is likely to spur investments 46

in developing the infrastructure across the value chain right from farm inputs to the consumers,” KPMG India partner and retail head, Rajat Wahi, said.

Stating the agriculture sector had been suffering from major roadblocks, the report estimated that the loss of primary produce before reaching the market due to lack of proper handling, cleaning, sorting, grading and packaging facilities at the village level was 30-40 percent for agricultural products such as grains, fruits and vegetables.

According to the report, problems exist at each stage of the value chain. The unreasonably long supply chain results in a steep increase in the total cost owing to procurement, transit and other taxes and service charges levied at various layers.

Consequently, the price received by the farmers is in the range of 25-60 percent of what the consumer pays.

Inaugurating the two-day Ficci conference, Ministry of Food Processing Industries secretary, Siraj Hussain, said the cold storage capacity in India was 25 million tonnes (mt) in 2010, while the requirement was around 61 mt. Since then, 10 mt capacity had been added but the deficit was still around 15 mt. The government was looking at investments from entrepreneurs to bridge this deficit without any subsidy.

On the other hand, he said, India exports of agricultural products stood at $ 30 million per annum and grew at 20 per cent on average in the last five years.

ITC group head-agribusiness, S Sivakumar, said the food processing industry was growing twice as fast as agriculture. He also pointed out that the job multiplier of the food processing sector was much higher than any other industry.

Ficci AP State Council chairperson, Sangita Reddy, said the conference would discuss critical issues like key constraints that were slowing the growth of the food processing sector and how they were being addressed.

Ficci AP co-chairman and conference general chair, JA Chowdary, said the next wave of industrial revolution could be achieved only by connecting innovation and technology to the complete value chain of agriculture and food processing.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

News

Indian food additives market to reach $898 million in 2017: Frost & Sullivan

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riven by rising demand for processed food & beverages, revenues of the Indian food additives market are expected to reach $897.7 million in 2017 from $484.2 million in 2012, according to Frost & Sullivan’s new study, Analysis of Indian Food Additives Market.

The study added, “Changing lifestyles and hectic work schedules have spawned a large market for processed and packaged convenience foods. The booming organised retail sector further extends the reach of processed foods. Change in eating habits and the frequent introduction of new products and product lines, particularly in the functional food and beverage market for low-fat, low-calorie products, spells growing opportunities for the food additives market. The market also finds encouragement in supportive government measures, such as policies to promote easy access to loans for smallscale food processing industries.”

The study covered the food additive classes of flavours, colours, preservatives, emulsifiers,stabilisers and sweeteners.

Among these segments, flavours account for 47 percent of the market; sweeteners contribute the least, by growing at the rate of 25 percent, however, expected to become increasingly popular in the coming years. Flavours are expected to grow at 13.9 percent, synthetic colours at 7.4 percent, natural colours at 12 percent, preservatives at 15 percent and food emulsifiers at 10.1 percent.

“The additives industry in India is veering towards natural emulsifiers and nature-derived colours. This change in preferences emanates from the increasing health consciousness among Indians,” said Frost & Sullivan’s Chemicals, Materials & Foods Research Analyst.

However, natural food additive manufacturers find it difficult to source raw materials due to the lack of centralised supply chain system and presence of Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

multiple sourcing points. The study finds that participants can forge partnerships with cooperatives and invest in contract farming to counter this issue. Such strategic alliances and joint R&D could also lower the prices of nature-derived products and lead to customised pre-mixes with application specific combination of flavours, colours and other additives for clients.

Some of market restraints include lack of cold storage infrastructure, an advanced logistics and transportation system for perishable goods, which leads to substantial wastage of agro-produce, adversely affecting farmers and natural food additive manufacturers. In response, the Indian government has allowed 100% foreign direct investment to attract large industry groups to invest in developing 47

cold chain logistics.

“Ironically, certain government policies could stifle innovation. For instance, the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA), which governs the food additives segment, permits only certain colours that are certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS),” noted the analyst.

Nevertheless, continuing product and process innovations in the food and beverage sector will motivate the additives market to expand its product portfolio, along with the entry of global participants will serve as market drivers and can lead to an increase in market consolidation.

As smaller retailers from the unorganised sector are acquired, the margins of larger manufacturers will improve.

News

Tata Global Beverages raises Rs 325 cr in debenture issue

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ata Global Beverages Ltd NCDs will be listed on the wholesale debt market segment of the National Stock Exchange of India, it added. Tata Global Beverages Ltd NCDs will be listed on the wholesale debt market segment of the National Stock Exchange of India, it added.

Tata Global Beverages are redeemable after 3 years with a redemption premium.

Tata Global Beverages, the partner of Starbucks in India, today said it raised Rs 325 crore in a private placement of debentures.

Tata Global Beverages Ltd issued 3 per cent secured redeemable nonconvertible debentures (NCD) by way of private placement, Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) said in a filing to the BSE. The NCDs will be listed on the wholesale debt market segment of the National Stock Exchange of India, it added.

The NCDs are redeemable after three years with a redemption premium, the company said.

Apart from the venture with Starbucks Coffee Company, TGBL has a portfolio of beverages with brands such as Tetley, Tata Tea, Eight O’Clock Coffee, Tata Water Plus and Himalayan water.

Shares of Tata Global Beverages closed at Rs 163.80 on the BSE, down 0.82 per cent.

India spices up the performance of global food, beverage companies

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n 1993, the consumption of aerated beverages in India was a meagre three servings, per person, per annum. Cut to 2013, industry estimates cite that Indians have a per capita consumption of 14 servings.

While that’s small when you compare the global average of 94 servings, India, because of the sheer weight of its population, is a huge force to reckon with for the world’s leading food and beverage corporations.

Despite its low per capita consumption of aerated beverages, India figures high on the priority of leading global beverage corporations PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

For example, India is now the seventh largest market for Coca-Cola globally from practically nothing in 1993 – CocaCola re-entered the Indian market only 20 years ago, after it left it in 1977.

And the country is also delivering the numbers where it matters. For instance, when Coca-Cola recently announced its third quarter results for 2013, it reported a spike of 22 per cent in volumes of Coca-Cola in India. A company statement said that volumes have been growing continuously over the last 29 quarters with the growth in double digits in 19 of them.

But to be sure, the progress has not been without its shares of setbacks. For instance, a McKinsey article on ‘How MNCs can win in India’ highlights the fact that “For multinationals, the key to reaching the next level will be learning to do business the Indian way, rather than simply imposing global business models and practices on the local market”.

BIG CHALLENGES Citing the example of a leading beverage company, the article points out that this company “entered India with a typical global business model — sole ownership of distribution, an approach that raised costs and dampened market penetration.

The company’s managers quickly identified two other big challenges: India’s fragmented market demanded 48

multiple-channel handoffs, and labour laws made organised distribution operations very expensive. In response, the company contracted out distribution to entrepreneurs, cutting costs and raising market penetration”.

Probably why, when Kraft Foods, now Mondelez took over the operations of Cadbury in India, it chose to not reinvent the wheel and decided to push the already well established Cadbury’s range of products in India rather than rides on back of their portfolio and launch its own portfolio.

Though Mondelez has since launched its own products such as Oreo biscuits and Tang beverages, the new introductions have not come at the cost of the existing bestsellers such as Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

That’s a mistake that even MNCs such as Hindustan Unilever committed in the past when it took over the range of Kwality ice-creams but soon replaced it with its own international brands.

The business went through tough times, but is now on a comeback trail.

However, while food companies have been reporting handsome growth in India, growth in the recent past has been sluggish primarily due to rising competition, slower consumer spending and increasing competition.

Companies such as Nestle that grew its topline from Rs 2,600 crore in 2005 to over Rs 8,500 crore in 2012 in India believe in the long-term potential of the Indian market despite seeing a 4-5 per cent decline in domestic volumes in recent times. That’s because by some industry projections, by 2018, India’s food and beverage industry is expected to grow at a rate of 18 per cent to touch $66.3 billion, up from $40.3 billion at present.

No wonder the world’s largest food and beverage companies are all looking at India with aggressive plans.

But consultants feel that MNCs still have some way to go in India.

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

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Manpasand Beverages set to invest Rs 100 cr

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argeting to treble its sales to Rs 1,000 crore, fruit juice manufacturer Manpasand Beverages (P) Ltd plans to invest over Rs 100 crore in the next three years.

This is part of the Vadodara-based company’s plans to increase its production facilities and distribution reach across India, especially in rural and semi-rural regions, said Dhirendra Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, in a press statement.

Manpasand Beverages, with its flagship brand Mango Sip, has a basket of 25 product variants. Mango Sip has grown to become the fourth largest mango drink brand in India, he said.

He said Manpasand’s beverage brands are available in over 20 states through more than two lakh retailers, over 2,000 distributors and 200-plus super stockists.

The company’s manufacturing facilities are located at Vadodara (Gujarat), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Dehradun (Uttarakhand).

The beverages industry is expected to see 35-40 per cent growth in future. “In the next 5 years, we expect the size of fruit drink industry to more than double to around Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore,” he added.

Established in 1998, Manpasand’s turnover was Rs 240 crore in 2012-13.

Mount Everest to merge with Tata Global Beverages

Starbucks eyes huge growth in Indian Market

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ullish on the Indian market for growth, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has said his company plans to open “thousands of stores” in India in the “not-too-distant” future, making the country one of its two largest markets outside North America along with China.

“I believe China and India offer Starbucks one of the greatest opportunities for growth.

“Our plan over time is that the number of our stores in India will rival the size and scale of what we have planned for China — thousands of stores,” Schultz said in an essay he has written for the book ‘Reimagining India: Unlocking the potential of Asia’s Next Superpower’ edited by global consulting firm McKinsey.

Schultz voiced optimism in the potential of the Indian market to become one of the coffee giant’s top growth drivers, saying “eventually we hope to have thousands of stores” in India.

“I look forward to a day in the nottoo-distant future when India takes its place alongside China as one of our two

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

largest markets outside North America,” he said in the essay adding that the company’s relationship with Tata, its 50/50 joint venture partner in India, will make Starbucks’ growth possible.

Schultz, however, acknowledged that achieving its ambitions for India may not be easy.

“Getting there would not be easy. Our successful beginning in India has not been without hurdles. On the contrary, it has been a complicated six year journey,” he said referring to Starbucks’ long wait to get into the Indian market.

“We’d watched the Indian market develop for many years.

We could see that all the important prerequisites for success were falling into place“.

He quoted instances like the emergence of a growing middle class with strong aspirations, enthusiasm for western culture and brands, gradual development of the nation’s infrastructure and “what seemed to be healthy changes in the regulatory framework for foreign investment”.

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he boards of directors of Tata Global Beverages (TGBL) and Mount Everest Mineral Water (MEMW) approved a proposal a merger. MEMW is a subsidiary of TGBL, which holds a 50.07% stake in the former.

“This merger will enable increased operational efficiencies and better synergy between both businesses...

The proposed merger will facilitate the growth of the Himalayan natural mineral water brand owned by MEMW,” a company statement added.

TGBL is a global beverage business and the world’s second largest tea company. The group’s annual turnover is $1.4 billion and it employs over 3,000 people worldwide.

Meanwhile, TGBL reported an over 51% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 180 crore for the second quarter.

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Dabur scion plans to expand own F&B venture overseas

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mit Burman, vice-chairman of consumer goods company Dabur, who is also the promoter of Lite Bite Foods, has chalked out overseas expansion plan for his food & beverages firm.

Lite Bite, which runs restaurant chains including Punjab Grill, Zambar, Asia Seven, FrescCo and Baker Street, which added Singapore as its first overseas destination in 2011, is looking at Bangkok, the US, Europe and the UAE markets.

“Punjab Grill should open in Bangkok by December. Then we want to take the brand to the US. We already have a partner in the US and are starting off by looking at locations in Washington area.

Hopefully, Punjab Grill will be there in the next six months.”

Burman is also taking Asia Seven and Zambar to Abu Dhabi where the restaurants

ITC set to enter branded juice biz with B Natural buy

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igarette-to-foods conglomerate ITC Ltd is set to enter a new segment — branded ready-todrink juices. The company is close to acquiring Bangalore-based Balan Natural Food Pvt Ltd’s B Natural brand to roll out packaged fruit juices under its foods category.

The deal, which is in the final stages, could be valued at Rs 100-200 crore, said those aware of the development.

Both companies, however, declined to comment.

But a person privy to the development said on condition of anonymity that ITC will soon make an announcement on the deal, which will be concluded in about 90 days.

This entry will pitch ITC into a highly competitive market against the established leader, Dabur India Ltd, which has a 54 per cent market share through its Real fruit juice brand, and PepsiCo India with a 25-30 per cent

market share through its Tropicana juice brand.

According to market researcher Nielsen, India’s branded packaged juice market is estimated at Rs 1,000 crore and growing annually at 15-20 per cent.

This deal will also be the cash-rich ITC’s first major acquisition in the foods segment since it entered the business in 2001.

The only exception is the acquisition of the Mint-O brand from the Delhi-based Candico in 2002 in the confectionery segment.

Explaining the company’s strategy, a fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) analyst with a foreign brokerage said ITC prefers developing brands on its own rather than making expensive acquisitions.

Currently, the company’s food business spans four categories — staples, snack foods, ready-to-eat foods, and confectionery that includes biscuits, aata noodles, candy and chips.

The B Natural acquisition also marks a 50

are expected to open by February.

“It will open up the entire UAE market for us. We will also be looking at Dubai after this. Even Europe is on the cards,” he said.

Lite Bite is also expanding in travel retail, which Burman said is still in the nascent stage and could be a great tool in brandbuilding for its restaurant outlets.

To begin with, the company is opening 15 restaurants at Mumbai Airport by the end of this year and a commissary near Mumbai.

Burman will also bid for restaurants at Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Goa airports.

Railways and metro lines, too, are on the cards for Lite Bite. At present, the firm runs close to 65 restaurants and plans to add 30 more at Mumbai airport by next year and has 25 more in the pipeline for the next two years.

Burman also plans to list the company when it reaches a critical mass. “We would rather have Rs 250-350 crore turnover with over 100 outlets and then list so that people would want to be a part of the growth story.” It clocked a turnover of close to Rs 100 crore in the last fiscal. significant step in fulfilling Chairman Y. C. Deveshwar’s aspiration of making ITC the No 1 non-cigarette FMCG player in India. The company is eyeing a turnover of Rs 15,000 crore from its non-cigarette FMCG business by 2017-18 against Rs 7,000 crore in 2012-13. Last fiscal, its non-FMCG segment revenue grew 26.5 per cent, while the net overall income rose 19.4 per cent to Rs 29,605.6 crore.

ITC’s non-cigarette business includes branded packaged foods, personalcare, lifestyle apparel, education and stationery, incense sticks and safety matches.

Balan Natural Food, founded by lawyerturned-entrepreneur A. Nanda Kumar, began production in 2004 and currently offers packaged fruit and vegetable juices in 15 flavours.

According to an ICRA report of May 2012, the company has a processing and packaging facility with an installed capacity of 80 million litres/year in Singapura village in Bangalore. The company reported an operating loss of Rs 2.2 crore and an operating income of Rs 65.3 crore in 2011-12, the report added.

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Dabur forays into packaged Milk Shakes under Réal

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abur India Ltd announced its foray into the packaged milk shake market with the launch of RÉAL Fruit Shakes under the brand Réal. This also marks brand Réal extending its fruit expertise into milk-based drinks.

RÉAL Fruit Shakes has been test launched with a single variant - Mango Shake and will be offered to consumers in two SKUS – 200ml for Rs 25 and 1litre for Rs 105. Réal Fruit Shakes provides a unique combination of actual Fruit and Milk as it has got the goodness of fruit in a wholesome way along with the power and nutrition of milk. Made with luscious mangoes, Réal Fruit Shakes gets across the nutrition of milk along with the goodness of fruits to kids in a fun manner.

“Dabur has always been at the forefront of innovation. We pioneered the concept of packaged fruit juices in India with the launch of with Réal and were also the first to introduce 100% fruit juices and fruitvegetable juices under with Réal Activ.

We expanded the category with India’s first fruit fiber beverage – Réal Activ Fiber+ and have recently introduced the category of Superfruits juices in India with the launch of RÉAL SUPAFruits. With the growing level of health awareness in India, there has been a spurt in demand for healthy functional foods. With the launch of Réal Fruit Shakes, we aim to not only extend brand Réal to give our consumers more choices but also make the experience of having milk more enjoyable

and nutritious for kids,” said Dabur India Ltd General Manager-Marketing (Foods) Mr. Praveen Jaipuriar.

Mr. Jaipuriar added that the company plans to extend the Réal Fruit Shakes range shortly with the addition of other delicious Fruit & Milk combinations.

Réal Fruit Shakes is currently being test launched in Delhi and Punjab and the initial response is encouraging. Dabur plan to soon launch Réal Fruit Shakes in other parts of the country too to cater to the demand for healthy and tasty milk based drinks for kids.

Every kid needs complete nutrition for overall well-being. However, between taste and health, taste is often the winner and it’s a daily struggle for the mother to feed him healthy food on a regular basis. Réal Fruit Shakes aims to resolve the contradiction between a mom’s and child’s needs by providing a product that is “approved by moms and liked by kids, thereby making health ‘tastier’ for kids.

Réal Fruit Shakes resolve the ‘taste and health’ dichotomy in the best possible way.

Apart from being a healthy proposition for kids, it also comes in a convenient format that prevents the hassle a homemaker has to go through to prepare a Mango shake at home. The product is packed in a 6-layered Tetrapak packaging which ensures a shelf life of 6 months. So, kids can now enjoy a Mango shake throughout the year!

Amul launches new modern dairy in Virar

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state-of-the-art Amul Dairy costing Rs.1.8 billion that can process one million litres of milk and produce ice-cream and fermented products was thrown open at Virar.

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It can double its capacity in the near future, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said after inaugurating the facility.

The dairy, to serve Mumbai and its surroundings, is equipped with a 50,000-litre per hour integrated milk reception, processing, online pasteurisation, standardisation and homogenisation facility.

A centralised computer monitoring system will oversee the traffic management system for operations. The automatic 51

pick-and-place system of milk pouch filling in crates is a global first.

The plant also has the country’s largest fully automatic ice-cream production facility - 200,000 litres per day with a wide range of products and flavours.

It has a dedicated facility for fermented milk products, the first in the country, with a capacity to produce and pack 150,000 litres of buttermilk and 50,000 litres curd and other dairy products daily.

Pawar said the central government will allocate Rs.17,000 crore to the dairy and milk production sector over the next 10 years. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and other top officials were present on the occasion.

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Lactalis Group to acquire majority stake in Tirumala Milk Products

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actalis Group, the world’s largest food product company with sales of 15 billion euro ( Rs 1.27 lakh crore), is close to signing an agreement with shareholders of Hyderabad-based Tirumala Milk Products to buy a majority stake in the dairy company, two people close to the development said. The French company could pay up to $300 million, valuing south India’s second-largest maker of dairy products at over 1,895 crore at exchange rate, said another person aware of the impending transaction.

Bolla Bramha Naidu, one of the four founders, who had earlier said there was no consensus among the promoters on the extent of dilution, told: “Majority of promoters is now in favour of selling their stake to the French company though I am not keen on divesting stake. But I have no other option than to go by the majority decision.”

Naidu said private equity firm Carlyle, which owns a 20% stake, would sell its holding while the four promoters would divest another 50%, resulting in Lactalis owning 70%. “The negotiations are still on and clarity over exact stake sale could

take a few more days.”

Nageswara Rao, another founder, directed the queries from ET to Naidu. “Bramha Naidu will tell you the required details.”

A Carlyle India spokesperson declined comment.

Lactalis, a family-owned company, did not respond to a questionnaire to a mail ID sourced from its website.

Tirumala Milk is currently owned by four farmers-turned-businessmen from Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district who own 80% of the company. Carlyle bought a 20% stake for Rs 100 crore in June 2011. The deal with Lactalis, if consummated, would thus represent a four-fold jump in valuation.

India’s organised dairy sector saw sales of around $10 billion (Rs 60,000 crore) and is set to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13-15% till 201920, according to a report by Rabobank.

According to an Assocham report, the Indian dairy industry is now the world’s largest, accounting for a 20% share in world milk production. “The domestic market with 123 million tonnes of milk production in 2011 is projected to reach 190 million tonnes by 2015,” the report 52

says.

Tirumala Milk, a fast-growing private milk products company, reported sales of Rs 1,500 crore and net profit of Rs 126 crore for the fiscal ended March 2013.

Naidu said the company has recorded sales of Rs 1,800 crore so far this year and expects sales to exceed Rs 2,000 crore in the current fiscal.

South India’s largest dairy company is Hatsun Agro, listed on BSE. Naidu had told in October that though a set of investors, including Danone and TPG, was showing interest in investing in the company, the deal was not progressing in the absence of consensus over valuations as well as equity stake of the strategic investor.

Naidu said he was against diluting his stake in the company even when Carlyle came forward to buy a 20% stake in the company for Rs 110 crore in June 2011. “I am highly possessive about the company, which four us developed like a baby and didn’t feel comfortable selling stake to an outsider. The other promoters were in need of money and we had to sell minority stake then in favour of Carlyle.”

The four promoters were initially partners in an automobile finance company, which they started with an initial capital of Rs 2.5 lakh each around 1989. Two of the promoters - Bramhanandam and Venkat Rao - were already associated with the dairy business and were working with Sangam Dairy.

“I was having good public relations in the villages around Narsaraopet and another friend of us - Nageswara Rao had domain knowledge and experience in transport business. The idea of starting dairy business on our own came to us in 1995 after ascertaining our strengths and four of us together invested Rs 50 lakh,” Naidu said.

“Four of us used to fill the milk in sachets and sell at four locations in Chennai those days,” he said.

Naidu said the next generation was not interested in the dairy business. “We could in our generation, as friends, promote nurture and develop the company as one of the leading players in the Indian dairy industry as we could gel well together.

Now, the next generation of promoters’ families is not gelling that well together like us and they are not keen to continue in the dairy business.”

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Local companies see a churn in Dairy Business

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airy firms are witnessing increased interest from investors as a changing consumption pattern in the Indian household is showing a clear preference towards protein-rich foods like milk products, pulses and non-vegetarian foods like egg, fish and meat. Close on the heels of the Tirumala Milk Products deal with a French dairy major expected

to take a majority stake, Creamline Dairy Products another Hyderabad-based dairy firm - is scouting to raise up to Rs 250 crore from strategic partners who can help it set up new facilities with better technologies and also boost its portfolio of value-added products.

Creamline, which sells its products under the ‘Jersey’ brand name with Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra as its main markets, is looking at foreign as well as domestic companies for partnership. At present, Godrej Agrovet holds 26% stake in the company and its promoters are willing to give a substantial stake to the incoming partner, two people involved in the deal said.

Hatsun Agro to acquire Hyderabad-based Jyothi Diary

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airy products maker Hatsun Agro Product is set to acquire a portion of the business of Hyderabadbased Jyothi Dairy Private Ltd for an undisclosed sum.

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The acquisition will strengthen Hatsun’s position in Chitoor district in Andhra Pradesh. Through this acquisition, Hatsun also hopes to reach other parts of the state.

“This will help the company expand into 53

News In the last fiscal, Creamline had clocked a revenue of about Rs 800 crore but, being in the basic dairy product business, had a margin of about 6-8% compared to the 1520% range large and established pan-India players enjoy, industry reports showed.

“The company is looking to enhance its portfolio of value-added products that enjoy much higher margins than what one gets in products like milk, curd, ghee and buttermilk,” one of the people involved in the deal said. “It’s now looking to bring in a partner who can help it grow the product variety.”

In India, the dairy business is worth about Rs 3.5 lakh crore and growing at a rate of about 15% annually. Increasingly, the rate of growth of demand for dairy products is outmatching the rate of growth of production, which in turn is reflecting in the rise in its prices. In October 2010, Subir Gokarn, a former RBI deputy governor, had for the first time pointed out how household affluence was leading to greater preference for protein-rich foods. He showed since there was a wide discrepancy between its rates of growth of production and demand for these products, the annual rate of inflation for some of the protein-rich foods was as high as 35%. other regions of the state,” said R G Chandramogan, founder chairman of Hatsun. The company is still working out the finer details of the deal, which will be finalized by the first week of November, said S Subramanian, CFO, Hatsun.

“The experience of Hatsun will help in expansion and better utilisation of the existing infrastructure,” said T Balaji, managing director of Jyothi Dairy.

Jyothi Dairy is a 22-year-old company present across Andhra Pradesh and has a turnover of around Rs 100 crore. Jyothi has production facilities in Hyderabad and Chittoor and milk collection facilities at 10 different locations, a statement from Hatsun said.

The acquisition comes at a time when global dairy giants and private equity funds are vying for a substantial stake in Tirumala Milk. American private equity fund Carlyle wants to sell its 20% stake in Tirumala Milk Products. The PE fund has appointed investment banker Barclays Capital to scout for a buyer.

News Amcor expanding its operations in India The he company is reinforcing its thousandthKrones position in the expanding sector of Indian packaging to achieve inorganic and organic growth. The report Contiroll HS says, meanwhile, the organization is

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High-speedwrap-around labelling from Krones goes from strength to strength

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t was back in 2005 that Krones AG, Neutraubling, Germany unveiled a milestone in terms of wrap-around labelling: it developed the Contiroll HS! With a rating of up to 66,000 containers an hour, what was then the newly developed Contiroll HighSpeed labeller eclipsed everything that had gone before. Today, after eight years, Krones has booked an order for the thousandth machine of this series, which means the Contiroll HS has most definitely secured itself a permanent place in the international beverage industry. And, now it’s even better!

One of the salient factors of the Contiroll HS isthat the labels are cut electronically. Thanks to variable utilisation and fast replacement of the vacuum cylinders, different container diameters and output spectrums can be handled on one and the same machine. This is a particularly attractive option for clients who want to fill and dress filling entire families of containers on a single line line.

Shorter label lengths, e.g. for 0.33 or 0.5-litre bottles, are run at maximum speed, while longer lengths entail a concomitantly reduced output.

Conventional machines, by contrast, always have to base their rating on the longest label they need to handle.

Blade replacement is extremely simple, requires no tools, and takes only a minute. The blade’s guaranteed useful lifetime is 100 million cuts.

The vacuum cylinders used to be very heavy, but now, thanks to the new lightweight construction involved, they are considerably easier to handle. What’s more,they are fitted with quick-change suction bars, which feature a non-stick coating for easier cleaning.

planning to split its divisions – setting up a new company for its other units and retaining its plastics divisions. By 2015, packaged food industry of India is expected to double up to $30 billion on the account of arrival of multinational companies in the modern retail trade and this sector. Ralf Wunderlich, who is the managing director & president of Amcor Flexible Asia Pacific, while commenting on this mentioned that the organization was expanding its operations in India through a series of planned acquisitions.

Last year, the company purchased Uniglobe Packaging Ltd. and Alcan Packaging earlier to that. He further mentioned that their business in India annually generates $100+ million revenue and is has marked double-digit growth.

Wunderlich further mentioned that their operation in India is to fulfill the needs of expanding flexible packaging market of India; hence, they are safeguarded from the falling rupee against the dollar in the span of last quarter. He further mentioned that, in the Indian market, they are planning to expand inorganically and organically. He said that they know India is a huge country offering a lot of prospects and is segmented in the four regions and they are looking out to have

Interest in this technology is steadily growing

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hanks to incorporation of the latest servo-technology, film handling meets the market’s need for kit that can handle ever-thinner materials.20-µm films, for example, have already been tested successfully under realistic conditions. The current standard lies at 35 µm.

Another innovation involves the hotmelt unit, which is now thermally insulated in conformity with the enviro stipulations.

Thanks to a compartment scraper system, the glue is conveyed inside the compartment, ensuring a maximally 54

their presence in all these four segments.

Amcor has plants in India at Haridwar, Daman and Chaken. Prominently for Amcor, packaged food industry of India, by 2015, is likely to double to $30 billion on the account of influx of multinational companies in the modern retail trade and sector, accordingly to Assocham – an industry body. In a related report, meanwhile, Amcor is likely to be dividing up its operation. In August, Plastics News reported that the new body being formed from the split-- AAPD that is Australasian and Packaging Distribution Ltd. will be an individual listed organization by the end of 2013.

AAPD will manage the beverage, glass, and fiber can packaging operations in New Zealand and Australia, along with the packaging distribution operations of Amcor in Australia and North America. clean mode of operation. Since 2009, the Contiroll HS has also been an integral constituent of ErgoBloc systems, reaching speeds of up to 81,000 containers an hour.

Interest in wrap-around labelling for beverage containers has been steadily growing ever since the Contiroll HS made its debut. Meanwhile, Krones builds more than a third of all its labellers for handling reel-fed labels. The future of wrap-around labellingis now even user-friendlier for the operators: at the drinktec 2013, Krones unveiled the new Contiroll ED station in ergonomic design.

Since the Contiroll HS made its debut, interest in wrap-around labelling forbeverage containers has steadily risen.

The thousandth Contiroll HS will be going into operation very soon.

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News

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The Emerson Cup 2013 Announces Its Winners For The 6th Edition, Showcasing Excellence Once Again

he Emerson Cup, an annual event organized by Emerson Climate Technologies to recognize outstanding and environmentally responsible designs in air-conditioning, revealed its winners for 2013 today. An unprecedented high quality of entries for The Emerson Cup 2013 competition proves that India is one of the global hubs for innovation and energy efficiency in building industry.

The Emerson Cup 2013 had three award categories – New Building, New Building – With Emerson Technologies and Retrofit Building. Each award category had two winners – one for a project from metropolitan cities and another one from emerging cities.

The awards started from Retrofit category for Emerging City. The first project to be announced as the winner was BWI Automotive Technologies Pvt. Ltd. at Rewari, Haryana by Mr. Sridhar Mohanty.

This was followed by winner from Metropolitan City for Retrofit Category, bagged by Green Initiative teams at Infosys Ltd. for the Infosys Chennai – Shols project at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The next announcement of award was for New Building category. Emerging City project for this category was awarded to Start Up IT Farms Pvt. Ltd. from Chandigarh, by M/S Design Atelier. The Metropolitan City award for New Building went to Mr. Satish N. Iyenger, Services Consultants for Puma Store at Bangalore, Karnataka.

This was followed by the final award category of New Building –With Emerson Technologies. The Emerging City project award was announced for Schott Kaisha Pvt. Ltd. at Vadodara, Gujarat executed jointly by Shah & Talati and Apex Consultants & Engineers. The Metropolitan City award was bagged

by ElectroArc Consulting Engineers for their project NetApp (India) Pvt. Ltd. at Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

Bangalore, Karnataka.

“The high quality of entries for The Emerson Cup competition reflect the growing awareness of energy efficient technologies and building design in India, not only in developed cities but also emerging markets”, said Giovanni Zullo, Vice President – Marketing & Planning Asia Pacific, Emerson Climate Technologies, addressing the presentation ceremony. “Emerson continues to be committed to innovation and environmental responsibility, serving the market needs of this important region with dedicated products and services; we are pleased to see the successful integration of Copeland Scroll™ products in many outstanding projects as a testimony of Emerson Climate Technologies’ capability in providing energy efficient solutions for a broad range of air-conditioning applications”, he added.

Expressing gratitude for the overwhelming industry support received for The Emerson Cup awards over the past six years, Mr. Sridar Narayanswami – Vice President & Managing Director form Emerson Climate Technologies (India) Ltd., also present on the occasion, said “Emerson is very proud to have the opportunity of being part of an industry that includes developers, architects, consulting engineers and OEMs, who are taking the lead to create a more sustainable future. The Emerson Cup plays an important role in encouraging energy efficient development, creativity and technology leadership at all levels of our industry in India. The Emerson Cup now is truly fulfilling our vision of ‘Innovations in Climate Technologies’.”

The Emerson Cup 2013 had a distinguished panel of highly regarded specialists from the HVAC industry who evaluated all the entries independently and selected the winners.

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Himachal Pradesh court extends stay on plastic ban

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himla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court extended the stay on the state government notification banning 25 junk food items in plastic packaging till December 09.

It also granted time to the central government to file its reply.

The June 26 notification banned junk food items like chips, kurkure, biscuits and noodles in plastic and non-biodegradable packaging for sale and stocking from July 01 in compliance with the high court orders.

A division bench comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Rajiv Sharma directed the parties to complete the pleadings by December 09 and clarified that no further adjournment should be granted.

The court passed the orders on the petitions of the Sanyukt Vyapar Mandal of Shimla, the Indian Biscuits Manufacturers Association of Noida and the Haroli Block Industries Associations of Talhiwal in Una. Earlier, the high court on September 03 had stayed the notification till November 19.

As per the court’s judgment, eatables like potato chips, cookies, candy, chewing gum, ice cream, chocolates and noodles would not be available in polythene packets.

Essential items like milk and vegetable oils are, however, exempted from the ban.

News Flexible packaging to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% till 2018 with growth thrust from 13 emerging markets

to show a modest growth trend, owing mainly to the saturated end-use markets in the region. The European market, which has also witnessed signs of maturity, is given a small boost by the East European nations.

Environmental awareness among consumers has meant that there lexible packaging to grow at a availability of number of pack types and is a swing in market shares among the CAGR of 5.1% till 2018 with raw materials used for flexible packaging. packaging materials. Changing consumer growth thrust from 13 emerging Beverage Packaging: Market Revenue, preferences and high disposable incomes markets

By Material, 2012 & 2018 (US$ mln) in APAC economies drives the end-use The flexible packaging market is considered to be one of the most dynamic packaging markets exhibiting diversified types of packaging and materials used across the regions. A report by Markets and Markets estimates the global flexible packaging market to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% from 2013 to 2018. Food, beverage, personal care products and pharmaceutical industries are the most important constituents of consumer packaged goods. Food packaging dominates the market share in terms of value as well as volume. With a huge market potential and growing consumer preference, the market is likely to witness substantial growth in the coming years. In the current packaging environment, flexible packaging is an important packaging solution for a saturated industry. It plays a vital role in protecting and extending the shelf life of end-products. Depending on the characteristics of the end-product Source: MarketsandMarkets Analysis market. The APAC region is leading in and value to be offered by packaging, the The figure above shows the growth the flexible packaging market shares. selection of resins and packaging type trend from 2013 to 2018. The global Developing economies such as China and is decided. The right packaging type is flexible packaging market is projected India are driving the growth in this region. essential to preserve the end-products to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% from 2013 Consumer preferences in convenience such as food, beverage, personal care to 2018. Polyethylene dominated this foods, westernized eating habits in terms products and pharmaceuticals and prevent global market by material accounting of packaged food demands, and rising untoward chemical reactions endangering nearly 32% of the total market share and disposable incomes are some of the the consumer’s health. Hence, an is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% important factors influencing the trend. efficient and suitable packaging solution during the forecast period. Polypropylene In the same way, the growing food and is imperative for every product. The accounted for the second largest share beverage processing industry in Brazil companies enjoying substantial market in the segment growing at a CAGR of and other Latin American countries drives share are Amcor Ltd. (Australia), Sealed 4.9% during the period under review. the growth in ROW. The Olympic Games Air Corporation (U.S.), Bemis Company Polypropylene comprises of Biaxially 2016 scheduled in Brazil will also act as a Inc. (U.S.), Mondi (South Africa), oriented polypropylene (BOPP) and Cast significant boost to the tourism industry, Huhtamäki Oyj (Finland) and Sonoco polypropylene (CPP). Of these two, the and in turn the consumption of packaged Products (U.S.). Key industry players are BOPP segment holds a significant share food in the region. Most of the countries in increasing their business and consolidating of around 80%, growing at a CAGR the Asia-Pacific are emerging economies their presence by pursuing mergers and of 5.2% from 2013 to 2018. Paper and that exhibit a strong economic growth in acquisitions in potential markets. Top six Aluminum are growing at a CAGR of the future. With the growth in per capita players in this global packaging industry 5.5% and 5.4% respectively. Cellulosic is income, consumers have adopted trends held a market share of around 58% one of the materials which show potential and preferences from the developed indicating participation of a large number growth in the future. It is projected to western markets. The growing population of players in this market. This fragmented grow at a CAGR of 8.2% through to 2018. and the consequential demand for industry structure is primarily due to the The North American market is expected packaged food, beverage, personal care

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Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

News products, and pharmaceuticals are driving the markets in these developing regions.

China and India are heading these growth trends. The thriving food & beverage, personal care products and pharmaceutical processing industries and the increasing consumer awareness regarding benefits of these products and their packaging types are the key fundamentals driving the markets in these regions.

Total demand for flexible packaging in the world’s emerging markets is valued at US$14 bln in 2011, representing around 20% of the global total of around of around US$70.6 bln, finds PCI’s latest market report. Increasing use of flexible packaging and subsequent investment in converting capacity in many markets will expand the size of the emerging markets by at least 50% by 2016. Over the last five years, average flexible packaging growth has been 11% in the emerging markets; twice that of the world average. India accounts for around 27% of total emerging market flexible-packaging production, although Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia are also significant production centers.

The report has identified 13 emerging flexible packaging markets comprising of Poland, Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Nigeria and South Africa. Collectively these markets, valued

at US$14 bln, have grown by almost 70% since 2006 and currently account for 20% of total world demand. One of the key findings is that although a number of these emerging markets have been affected by the global economic downturn, they have weathered the crisis well, with demand growth averaging almost 11% pa since 2006, led by countries including India, Indonesia, Brazil and Russia.

In general, all emerging markets have illustrated strong growth over the past five years, with only 3 of the 13 posting overall growth of less than 30% between 2006 and 2011.

The major driving forces in flexible packaging demand within these emerging markets include strong GDP growth, high population growth, liberalisation in a number of markets, continued urbanisation and the development of mass retailing. In addition, changing consumer lifestyles and increasing disposable incomes have encouraged the development of new convenient packaged food and non-food products.

2 cold storage chains coming up in Bengal, says Anwar

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he Centre has planned to open two cold storage chains in West Bengal, for which work has already started, NCP leader and Minister of state for agriculture and food processing Tariq Anwar said.

“The projects at Jangipur and Jalpaiguri would cost Rs 132 crore and Rs 113 crore, respectively. It would be put up in a public-private-partnership (PPP) model and the Centre would provide Rs 50 crore for each project, while the rest would be funded by private players,” Anwar said.

Stating that the role of agriculture cannot be ignored in a country like India and that value addition through food processing was essential, Anwar said, “Besides the cold storage chain, proper packaging and minimum wastage is essential for proper

Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013

implementation of Food Security Bill.”

He said there was no shortage of agricultural produce in the country and attributed the recent crisis to poor transportation.

“Monsoon had been bountiful. Only due to poor transportation, has the scarcity surfaced and middlemen were taking advantage in the process,” he said, adding that most of the black marketeers across the country belonged to the Bharatiya Janata Party. He said FDI in retail was important as one of the reasons for current an economic crisis was that the foreign investment has gone down.

NCP to take call on ties with TMC The Nationalist Congress Party 57

While concentrating on supplying the flexible packaging needs of a growing domestic food-processing industry amid rapidly growing economies and increasing levels of disposable income, exports from many emerging markets are also rising.

Although imports are expected to continue to increase in value over the coming five years, the proportion of domestic consumption they fulfill has, and will continue to, decrease. Eight of the 13 emerging markets are expected to be producing over US$1 bln worth of flexible packaging by 2016.

Significant opportunities exist in build converter expertise in the faster growing added-value sectors of the emerging market’s flexible-packaging industry, with these materials currently being largely supplied by imported volumes.

(NCP) — an ally of the UPA government — will soon take a call on its stand on the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. “We have supported different secular parties in different states. In the last election, the Congress and TMC were allies. But they parted ways. We support the UPA government at the Centre, but will have to decide on our stand on the TMC government. We have convened a meeting next month where we will discuss the issue,” NCP leader Tariq Anwar said.

News Agilent Technologies inaugurates CrossLab at its Manesar Facility

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gilent Technologies, a world leader in test and measurement today launched, Agilent CrossLab Laboratory at its Manesar campus.

This initiate will further strengthen the company’s CrossLab Enterprise Services, a synchronized laboratory solution by Agilent Technologies, a service model for all instruments regardless of the brand.

CrossLab Laboratory is an Investment done by Agilent Technologies to further strengthen the CrossLab Services initiative started in India 3 years back for providing comprehensive Service support to analytical instrument’s from various manufacturers’ which is used in Pharma, Biotech, Food , Environmental industries across India.

This Laboratory will help increasing the capability of Agilent Service Engineering Team with hands on training on Analytical instruments from various manufacturers and there by developing Services protocol to provide comprehensive solution to their customers.

Commenting on the inauguration of CrossLab Dr. Siva Kumar Pasupathi, Country Head, Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis Unit, Agilent Technologies said “We are extremely proud of our CrossLab Laboratory which offers industry’s best facilities to our customers. We understand and recognize that laboratories are often equipped with instruments from a range of vendors. Agilent CrossLab will enable simplification product selections and purchase for our customer. Apart from that, this initiative will also streamline their workday, and improve their overall productivity”.

Mr. Luca Geretto EMEA & India

Service Sales Manager, Agilent Technologies said “With Agilent CrossLab Services customers can reach the highest level of productivity.

Customer can rely on one highly qualified engineer, who understands their work flow, goals to keep all instruments performing at maximum capacity.”

Dr. Puran Lal Sahu, Associate Director AR &D, of a leading Pharmaceutical organization in India said “We have adopted Agilent Technologies CrossLab Since the last three years and we are extremely happy with the same. With CrossLab Services we can now focus on our job and the services of Analytical Instruments is looked after by Agilent Technologies. We are getting more options, best products and delivery through such a support.”

Traditional service models are more expensive, involve multiple points of contact with different vendors, and require in-house metrology teams to remain current on all the instrumentation. Agilent CrossLab Enterprise Services delivers solutions that help improve results, reduce costs, and raise productivity. Agilent CrossLab delivers to its customers 1. Worldwide technical and product selection assistance from experts 2. Ordering convenience by reducing the number of suppliers 3 Prompt delivery through an unparallel global logistic network 4 High- quality supplies, backed by more than 40 years of chromatography experience 5. Compatibility of non- Agilent instruments.

Core benefits of Agilent CrossLab • Comprehensive Support – From start to finish, Agilent CrossLab will take full ownership of your instrument needs.

• Maximum Instrument Uptime – Scheduled maintenance and 58

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qualifications, onsite inventory of parts, and an onsite engineer will make sure the systems stay up and running, and are serviced as quickly as possible.

Fast Response – The onsite engineer can address service issues immediately, minimizing instrument downtime and workflow disruptions.

Extended Instrument Life – Agilent consistently delivers high-quality maintenance and repair services using genuine Agilent CrossLab parts, Agilent Certified Aftermarket parts, and OEM parts to help ensure longlasting performance.

Cost Control – Agilent helps customer to avoid costly workflow disruptions by minimizing downtime, extending instrument life, and reducing your administrative burden so that lab personnel can focus on generating results.

Increased Productivity –Agilent works collaboratively with customers to deliver lab-wide strategies, engage in life-cycle and asset management, and utilize reporting tools to optimize your lab’s productivity.

Streamlined Protocols – Reliable, whole-system service protocols and checklists ensure consistent, highquality service.

Insightful Reports – Using analytical tools and industry know-how, Agilent offers a suite of data-driven reports to help you monitor lab performance, plan lab asset technology migration and manage asset life cycle.

Consistent Levels of Service – Agilent protocols, scope of work, and checklists all ensure that customer will consistently receive the same high level of service on all your instruments.

Method Development/Validation Support – Agilent partners with customers to assist with method development and offers validation support to ensure the success of the next project.

Education and Training – Agilent offers extensive continuing education and training opportunities. With classes and courses that are provided online, at an Agilent site, or in your lab, we have a program to meet your needs Vol. 09, Issue 01, November, 2013