Oil & Food Journal

India’s Only Monthly for Processed Food, Agro Commodities, Edible Oil & Allied Segments

Vol 7 Issue 8 June 2012

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From the Desk of Editor

Dear Readers It may come as a great surprise to anyone that the new data from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service shows that the way things are going this year India will be the world's largest exporter of beef. Correspondingly Consumption of buffalo meat in India is around 2 million tons in 2012, as per GAIN (Global Agricultural Information Network) report.

In fact by the end of 2012 India will export roughly 1.5 million metric tons of beef, continuing a sharp rise beginning in 2009 and overtaking Australia, Brazil, and the United States.

These statistical attainments of the meat industry look very attractive but the truth behind this is that most slaughter house/abattoirs in India are still under developed and highly unhygienic.Modernisation of abattoirs has been long due in India. Though India is among leading global exporters of meat and meat products but the way it is exported is not up to global standards.

Some companies like Allana's and Al Hind have been maintaining standards at their end but medium and small exporter who buy from the market are still buying from the processors who are not so keen on maintaining their standards. And If India wants to be in the league of top meat exporter like Australia and New Zealand it is then mandatory s to maintain good supply-chain mechanism as well as hygiene standards.

In India, there are about 4,000 registered slaughter houses with the local bodies and more than 25,000 unregistered premises, where animals are slaughtered to fulfil the demands of domestic consumers. There are about 20 integrated abattoirs-cum-meat processing plants with state-of-theart facilities for hygienic meat production to meet the export demands, where animals are received from the suppliers who procure the animals from the weekly markets.

The existing condition in the majority of the traditionally slaughter-houses is far from satisfactory.

Most of the slaughter-houses are lacking basic facilities like water, electricity, ventilation, drainage, ceramic flooring, overhead rails and waste disposal. Animals are slaughtered in traditional ways on the open ground with/without further processing or dressing on the floor/rails are the common practices in a majority of the slaughter-houses. These existing slaughter houses are mostly under the local governmental authority and no one is brother about their 'up gradation'and consumer/public health point of view. The authority is concerned for the collection of money in such type of slaughter houses.

The existing slaughter-houses need to be modern to complete automation/mechanisation and it is not possible even in state-of-the-art modern abattoirs, but it should be partially mechanised to cater to increased local needs of hygienic and safe meat for human consumption. The aim of upgradationof slaughter-houses should be scientific, humane and hygienic slaughter of meat animals to produce wholesome and safe meat for human consumption, proper utilisation of byproducts and the proper disposal of waste emanating from the slaughter operations.

It is therefore necessary to establish modern slaughter-houses/abattoirs to bring improvements in meat-handling practices, recovery and proper utilisation of by-products, waste treatments for pollution control for reorganisation and strengthening the meat industry on scientific line to provide wholesome and safe meat to the domestic consumer as well as to play a major role in international meat trade/market. The modern abattoirs need not to be large ones but they can be small/medium/large to slaughter from 10 animals upto 10,000 animals on modern scientific basis to cater to the need of Indian consumer from rural and urban areas as well as to meet the export demands to earn the foreign currency to strengthen not only the meat industry but the betterment of livestock industry. The modern slaughter-houses should have state-of-the-art facilities to produce wholesome meat.

Most of the Indian export-oriented modern abattoirs adopted the state-of-the-art technology to produce the internationally accepted quality meat. The Indian meat industry has some advantage over developed countries like near to meat markets, halal methods of slaughter, cheap and quality meat, nearly organic meat, less cholesterol in meat (buffalo meat), renderpest-free and BSE-free, huge livestock population and less subsides before liberalisation of trade make Indian industry competitive other country.

MoFPI has planned out to make investments to create a brand value for the Indian wholesome hygienic meat products and by-products. The ministry is initiating schemes to upgrade infrastructure for the food processing industry, and as part of this, would invest Rs 241 crore in setting up new abattoirs and upgrading the existing ones.

Even as the country has considerable livestock population, the export of meat and meat products is less than 3 per cent. I believe it is high time that the industry and academia should come together and work out all the tasks so as to reduce the challenges and enhance meat production in the country.

Hyderabad-based National Research Centre on Meat (NRCM) has plans to collaborate with TNDPC to start training programmes for the entrepreneurs in the sector.

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

-Editor

January 2012

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Oil & Food Journal June 2012

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Contents Contents

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ASSESSING FUNCTIONAL PHYTOCHEMICALSDURING

FRUIT PROCESSING 37 A failed food system: India's grain piles up, yet the poor go hungry

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Iran needs 2m tonnes of wheat to dodge impact of sanctions

41 DSM presents Science & Technology Awards (North) 2012 42

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News

MP set to topple Haryana as No. 2 in wheat procurement

50,000 tonnes of food grains go missing from UP godowns Britannia sees West, targets Indians India may sell wheat to Glencore Court bars Commissioner of Food Safety from enforcing rules against hotels ‘Food safety standards have immense benefits' Arbro Analytical Division Authorized by FSSAI for Testing of Food Samples Assam CM for CFTRI branches Dairy business in Andhra Pradesh reached 5000cr mark Govt lifts ban on exportof skimmed milk powder ITC nearing break even in few quarters, crossed 3000cr mark Proposed rules on packaging may be deferred, relaxed Japan clears world's first healthy cola China clears way for Indian marine products China grain imports to rise, India eyes more export Storage crisisIndia asks Malaysia to explore bulk wheat buy Indian tea exports to Chinese market increasing steadily

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Eat Your

Fruits and Vegetables They're Essential to a Healthy Diet

Fruit processors for profitability

food processing technologies look for value added

by V Gokuldas, Managing Director, HRS PSL

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“Awadhi Food Festival”

at Marine Plaza

THE RETAIL SECTORA

GLOBALREPORT 10

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

Knorr and aku.automation achieve 100% inspection rates of food packages with In-Sight

Gluten Free Friend or Fad?

FOOD PACKAGING

REVOLUTIONIN

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54 MPOC and MPOB Jointly Organize

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Malaysia-India Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar (POTS) 2012

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Oil & Food Journal June 2012

News

MP set to topple Haryana as No. 2 in wheat procurement

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adhya Pradesh, one of the BIMARU states, has inched closer to displace Haryana from the second spot in wheat procurement. The state's performance, in fact, has boosted the procurement in the country that is looking to enact a food security law soon. At the end of May, wheat procurement across the country stood at 34.27 million tonnes, up by over 20 per cent from previous year's 28.39 million tonnes. “We have procured about 8.45 million tonnes of wheat so far. Procurement is still going on at some places like Satna.

So, we have almost equalled Haryana in the procurement of wheat this year and most likely will displace it from second position next year,� Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told.

The procurement level this year is more than double the level achieved two years ago in 2010-11 when the state procured about 3.54 million tonnes.

Punjab remains unchallenged as number one in wheat arrivals (12.87 million tonnes) and wheat procurement (12.77 million tonnes) like every year.

With about 8.65 million tonnes of wheat procurement this season, Congressruled Haryana, however, is still marginally ahead of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh. But market arrivals of wheat suggest that Madhya Pradesh has already beaten Haryana in terms of surplus wheat stock available for 12

procurement.

According to the latest statistics available with the FCI, the wheat arrivals in mandis across Madhya Pradesh so far has been 9.12 million tonnes as against 8.65 million tonnes (almost all being procured) in Haryana.

In fact, the FCI figures of end-May suggest daily wheat arrivals in mandis across Haryana at about 10,000 tonnes daily, while the arrivals in mandis across Madhya Pradesh was still over 1,00,000 tonnes which if continued could easily break past procurement in Haryana this year itself.

With about 70 per cent growth in wheat procurement over last season, Madhya Pradesh is fast catching up with Haryana which lagged behind with under 25 per cent growth over last year. (See BOX) Madhya Pradesh has contributed about 60 per cent alone in the total jump of about six million tonnes of wheat procurement in the country this year over the previous season. No wonder, the gunny bags became short in the state, an issue which was raised in Parliament during the recently concluded budget session.

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

50,000 tonnes of food grains go missing from UP godowns

D

espite CBI probe, more than 50,000 tonnes of wheat and rice have gone missing from a warehouse in Allahabad. Officials say they are eaten by rats. Really?

Over 50,000 metric tonnes of food grains , including 37,000 tonnes of wheat and 13,000 tonnes of rice, have gone missing from a warehouse of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in Allahabad. The FCI registered a case against 11 officials, including M S Faruqui, in-charge of the warehouse.

When asked to explain the shortage of food grains worth more than Rs 3 crore, warehouse officials said that it was eaten by rats. But during an investigation it was found that they had sold it in the open market. The foodgrain was meant for the public distribution system.

This has happened when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has expedited its inquiry into the alleged Rs 35,000 crore foodgrain scam, which took place in Uttar Pradesh between 2004 and 2008. The CBI had recently arrested a member of the All-India Congress Committee in connection with this scam.

301-A, Diamond Khan, Srikant Dharve Marg, Naya Nagar Circle,Mira Road(E), Mumbai-401107 February 2012 Tf: +91-22-28555069, T: +91-22-22999815, Handy +91-9867992299, 9867601701

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Oil & Food Journal June 2012

News Britannia sees West, targets Indians

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ritannia Industries, which has a near dominant control in the Indian biscuits market, is embarking on a global expansion to shore up its growth story. The company, which logged 19 per cent growth in top line at Rs 5,400 crore, derives around Rs 250 crore from global operations and is looking at all vectors to expand its presence overseas.

“Several of our bakery and dairy brands are available in approximately 30 countries, and we want to open up new geographies with new offerings,” Managing Director Vinita Bali said.

Britannia, in addition to a decent presence in West Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and Australia, has entered mature North American and UK markets. “We are targeting the Indian diaspora in the United States, Canada and the UK. It is indeed a highly competitive market, but is a large one, as well,” Bali said about sales prospects there. According to her, Britannia has hardly touched the tip of the iceberg in reaching out to the Indian diaspora, and intends to reach beyond this target segment pretty soon and rely on the distributor model. Britannia intends to ride on the established organised retail market in mature markets and go for the hard sell at the point-of-sale terminals to reach out to the consumer.

“We support our brands selectively, depending on the market, and this consists of in-market and some media support. The radio there is a very targeted medium and we are riding on that. Some of the Indian television networks beam Indian content to the people there and we are leveraging on that, as well,” Bali said.

According to her, a key challenge in building a brand in an overseas market with an abundance of choice, is in establishing its relevance and specialty.

“In our experience, consumers around the world buy brands and not companies or the way they are structured. To compete effectively, quality and its consistent delivery is a given. Being

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global is the way companies look at the world and their businesses. Consumers look for brands that satisfy their needs and are different, better and special,” Bali noted.

Bali should know. She has worked in global roles at Cadbury and The Coca-

India may sell

wheat to Glencore

Cola Company. During her stint as the worldwide marketing director in The Coca-Cola Company, she was one of the key players in doubling its historical growth rate.

Apart from its expansive manufacturing capacity in India, Britannia has some facilities in West Asia after it acquired two bakery companies there.

“Some of the products catering to the global markets are sourced from these units, while the bulk of the supply is from India as it is more cost effective,” Bali said. In 2011-12, Britannia spent as much as Rs 200 crore to expand capacities and put up two greenfield units. Industry analysts indicate Britannia may be scouting West Asian markets for another acquisition, an aspect on which Bali declined to comment.

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

India plans to sell 98,000 tonnes of wheat to Glencore International for export, as the country, the world's second-largest grower, seeks to cut record state inventories, said two government officials.

The cabinet is set to allow the State Trading Corp (STC) next week to sell 38,000 tonnes at $230 a tonne and 60,000 tonnes at $228 a tonne, said the officials, who declined to be identified because the plan is private. The price is less than the Rs 18,220 ($328) a tonne cost to the government of buying and storing the grain, they said. India is seeking to cut reserves held by the state-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) to create room for a sixth year of record harvests.

Production will be 90.2 million tonnes in the year ending June 30, the Agriculture Ministry said. The country scrapped a four-year ban on exports by private traders in September.

“Global prices are expected to plunge with exports from India and commencement of Russia's new crop from July,” said T P S Narang, an adviser at the New Delhi-based Emmsons International, a grain exporter.

Wheat for July delivery rose 0.8 per cent to $6.18 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 4:55 pm Mumbai time. Futures have fallen 16 per cent since September 8, when India ended the ban on shipments.

N C Joshi, a spokesman for the Food Ministry here, and Pravin Dongre, chief executive officer of Glencore Grain India Pvt, declined to comm

News Court bars Commissioner of

Food Safety from enforcing rules against hotels

T

he Madras High Court has granted an interim injunction restraining the Commissioner of Food Safety of Tamil Nadu from enforcing the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations 2011 against the members of the Tamil Nadu Hotels Association and a hotelier of T. Nagar here.

Va c a t i o n J u d g e , J u s t i c e K.Venkataraman, passed the interim order on a petition by the association, represented by its president, M. Venkatadasubbu and P.G.R. Ganeshan, the hotelier.

Mr. Justice Venkataraman ordered notice of admission of the petition returnable in three weeks. He said since an interim injunction and stay had been granted by the High Court's Madurai Bench on similar petitions, he was passing the interim order.

In the petition, filed through counsel G. Sankaran, the petitioners challenged the validity of certain regulations framed under the Food Safety and Standards Act. The Centre had enacted the Act to consolidate food laws and establish the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for laying down scientific standards for food articles and regulating their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import.

Under the law, the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) (Packaging and Labelling), (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) and (Contaminants, Toxins and Residues) Regulations had been framed. The Act, rules and regulations came into effect from August 5, 2011.

The petitioners said the association members were running non-star

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restaurants, eateries, mess, sweet stalls, bakeries and coffee stalls. The regulations were “really draconian” in nature as the conditions laid down were virtually impossible to be implemented.

They would result in “devastation of local food industries which were in the nature of small-scale or cottage industry and the entire food business would be conquered by multi-national companies and multi-national industries”.

The Act provided for a clear and categorical distinction between petty food manufacturer and other food manufacturers. However, on the contrary, the regulations in their entirety obliterated the difference by resorting to “inappropriate definition” of the term “petty food manufacturer”. Hence, the entire regulations were ultra vires the Act. The association said that most of the stand alone restaurants and eateries were being run as self-employment enterprises. Their owners were educated and possessed experience and expertise to maintain hygiene and take care of the production process as they were in business for generations. Further, the chefs and cooks employed had enough experience in food preparation.

Therefore, there may not be any mandatory requirement for engagement of a technical person to supervise the food processes in hotels. A physical, microbiological and chemical laboratory had been made mandatory for testing the food material within the business premises.

The court also granted interim stay of the operation of certain regulations in the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of food businesses) and regulations of Packaging and Labelling and Food Products Standards and Food Additives regulations.

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

‘Food safety standards have immense benefits'

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he globalisation of food trade offers many benefits to consumers as it results in wider choices of high quality food items and offers affordability, Mr K.V. Thomas, Union Minister of State of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, has said.

Inaugurating a national seminar here on 'Food Safety – Role of Standards', the Minister said that global food trade also provides opportunities to earn foreign exchange through export of food items that would be acceptable to people in other countries.

Objectives Viewed from these angles, the Minister said, the role of standards in the domain of food safety is immense. The main objectives behind formulation of standards includes promoting public health by reducing the risk of food, providing a sound regulatory foundation for domestic and international trade in food and to protect consumers from mislabelled or adulterated food.

The Bureau of Indian Standards, he said, has made significant contribution by way of formulating a number of Indian standards in various fields with the needs and priorities of the country. It has formulated 1,000 Indian standards in the area of food products and food safety. The three Indian standards recently formulated by BIS such as Indian Standards on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) and Food Retail Management (FRM) are also important in the area of food products and food safety, he said.

Streetfoods According to Mr Thomas, the recent growth in street foods and street food vendors has been phenomenal with important economic and nutritional implications in the urban context. Readily accessible and affordable to urban population, they provide the energy and nutrient needs to large segments of workers and their families in the cities.

BIS has recently finalised Indian standard on basic requirements for street food vendors, which is a noteworthy initiative, he added.

The seminar focussed on various facets of food safety requirements and regulatory requirements applicable to hospitality sector as well as food sector. It discussed on various subjects related to hygienic requirements, good manufacturing practices and standards related to food sector.

News Arbro Analytical Division Authorized by

FSSAI for Testing of Food Samples

A

rbro Analytical Division one of India's largest NABL accredited food testing laboratory has been authorised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for testing of samples under the Food Safety and Standards Act. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India was established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. Subsequently, the Food Safety and Standards Regulations 2011 were published on the 1st August 2011, laying down a mechanism of registration and licensing of food business operators to ensure the quality and safety of food sold in the country.

Under the regulations, for licensing of a food business, the food business operators are required to periodically get their input materials, water and food products tested from a NABL accredited and FSSAI authorised food testing laboratory. The periodic testing is intended to ensure the safety and quality of the food being produced. For this purpose FSSAI has authorised NABL accredited food testing laboratories like Arbro, for carrying out the required testing.

Established in the year 1990, Arbro Analytical Division has been serving leading players in the food industry for over a decade now. Arbro was first accredited by NABL in 2003 and has since evolved a comprehensive scope of accredited food testing services including Microbiology, Nutritional Labelling, Pesticide Residue, Drug Residues, Aflatoxins, Naturally Occurring Toxins and Genetically Modified Organisms. The laboratory is also accredited for the testing of water as per the Indian and international standards.

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In a comprehensive study on food testing infrastructure conducted by TUV Southasia, Arbro was declared as one of the 5 national level laboratories in India. The study was sponsored by Ministry of Food Processing of India (MoFPI) and covered 312 laboratories in India. Backed by state-of-the-art infrastructure Arbro has been working with most of the leading food industries in the country.

“We are thrilled to be authorised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The implementation of the Food Safety and Standards Act is a commendable effort on the part of the Ministry of Health And Family Welfare, Government of India. The Food Safety and Standards Act consolidates, various acts and orders, under different ministries into a single act and organisation. This will go a long way in ensuring the availability of safe and wholesome food to the citizens of India,” said Mr. Vijay Kumar Arora, Managing Director, Arbro Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Analytical Division).

“I am very excited that our laboratory has been authorised by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, for testing of food samples. For more over a decade now we have been serving the food industry, primarily to ensure the quality of food being exported from India. This has helped us to develop a comprehensive scope of food testing services which covers all the requirements laid down under the Food Safety and Standards Act. Now extending these services to leaders in the domestic market, backed by our superior quality and service, is going to be a win-win situation for both,” said Dr. Saurabh Arora, Executive Director, Arbro Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Analytical

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

Assam CM for CFTRI branches

A

ssam chief minister Tarun Gogoi inspected various technologies being developed by the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI).

Speaking to mediapersons at the institute, he said there is a need for lot of branches similar to the institute, which should be opened across the country.

He expressed concern over the slow progress made in food processing and value addition despite massive agricultural produce in the country.

Compared to countries such as Thailand and Singapore, who utilise 80 per cent of their agricultural produce in the food processing industry, India is processing only 20 per cent of its produce. Gogoi said there is a need for improvisation of such processing units.

He mentioned that youths from his state were frequently visiting the institute for training in food processing.

Gogoi was on his third visit to the city.

Earlier, he had visited during his tenure as agriculture minister of Assam and later as Union minister of state for food p r o c e s s i n g i n d u s t r y.

Earlier, CFTRI director G Venkateshwara Rao explained the technology, which is used by Amul to convert milk into skimmed milk powder.

Rao showcased the technology for readyto-eat products being offered by CFTRI.

News

Dairy business in Andhra Pradesh reached 5000cr mark

Govt lifts ban on export of skimmed milk powder

A

T

he dairy industry in Andhra Pradesh has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years to be currently worth Rs 5,000 crore. With around 200 small and large dairy farms coming up in the city in the past four years, the agro-based dairy business seems more lucrative than ever.

The rise in the demand for milk and milk products has catapulted the state to the third position in the country in terms of milk production with 1.12 crore tonnes produced in 2010-11. With dairy farms and processing plants of different sizes scattered across city suburbs such as Shadnagar, Patencheru, Madhapur and along the Nagarjuna Sagar and Siddipet Roads, industry experts peg the mushrooming of these farms and of those across the state to the burgeoning population and the retail revolution in the city.

Significantly, in a bid to protect their lands, many farm owners set up dairy farms on the city outskirts. Dairy farming consultant Dr Padmakar Rao says, "The availability of good quality fodder and access to water helped these farmers on the outskirts of the city to get a foothold in the business."

Experts pointed out that though the 17

government had liberalised its policies on private entities making a foray into the dairy business in late 1991, it is only now that the private players have made substantial progress.

K Durga Prasad, chief operating officer, Heritage Foods India Ltd, says, "Earlier the market was monopolized by APDDCF and Visakha Dairy. Now, there are many private players such as Heritage, Tirumala and Creamline apart from others such as Masqati and Bilal.

Waking up to the big money in milk, Andhra Pradesh Dairy Development Cooperative Federation ( APDDFC) will start mapping every drop of milk procured and sold. The cooperative had a turnover of Rs 450 crore in the last fiscal and milk sales have registered a growth of 9.82% with 1,395 lakh litres sold in 2011-12, according to vicechairman and managing director, Mohd Ali Rafath.

Experts estimate that the consumption of milk will increase manifold over the next decade. Bhaskar Reddy, managing director, Creamline Dairy Corporation says, "According to national statistics, milk consumption will increase from 112 million tonnes this year to a staggering 200 million tonnes by 2020."

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

mid surplus availability, the government lifted ban on export of skimmed milk powder (SMP) to improve finances of dairy firms and help milk producers.

The decision to this effect was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

"It has been decided to lift ban on export of SMP," Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told.

The government had banned SMP exports in February 2011 to contain rise in domestic milk prices.

When asked if there was any quantitative restriction on export, he replied in negative.

Pawar said the Commerce Ministry has also been asked to provide incentives to the exports of SMP in line with other farm produce.

The ministry has also been asked to examine the possibility of imposing import duty on SMP, he added.

The dairy industry has been facing liquidity crunch as it could not make profit through sale of skimmed milk powder due to steep fall in domestic prices following surplus supplies.

Domestic prices of SMP have declined to Rs 150 per kg now as against Rs 190-200 per kg in the same period last year.

Mother Dairy Managing Director S Nagarajan said, "The exchange rate is favourable for export but we need to ascertain actual demand in the international market."

Sterling Agro Industries Managing Director Kuldeep Saluja said, "The move will benefit both industry and farmers. There is excess stock of over one lakh tonnes lying with industry. The export will help improve liquidity."

Milk production in India, the world's biggest producer, is estimated at over 120 million tonnes in 2011.

News

ITC

nearing break even in few quarters, crossed 3000cr mark

A

s a business, ITC Foods is younger than many other established players around, having begun operations only a decade ago. But the Bangalore-headquartered division has shown why it cannot be taken for granted. The division has crossed the Rs 3,000-crore-mark in terms of turnover, has cut its losses significantly and retains growth levels in excess of 25 per cent per annum.

Analysts estimate that within the next few quarters, ITC Foods is likely to break even. They also say that in a couple of years, the division may touch the Rs 5,000-crore mark in terms of turnover. So how has ITC cracked the code in foods? That too at a time when rivals such as Hindustan Unilever (HUL), who've been around longer in foods, have struggled with the business.

Processed foods clubbed with icecreams constitute just 6 per cent of HUL's Rs 22,116-crore turnover.

The answer, say experts, lies in the choice of food categories that ITC has opted to play in. Besides being highgrowth segments, ITC, says Anand Shah, FMCG analyst at brokerage Elara Capital, has preferred to step into areas where it can exploit back-end synergies well. “Whether it is direct procurement from farmers using its e-choupal network or pushing products using its legacy distribution in cigarettes, ITC has got crucial elements of the marketing mix in place in foods,” he says.

This point is endorsed by Chitranjan Dhar, chief executive officer, ITC Foods Division. He says, “Besides costeffective sourcing using e-choupal what 18

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

lends competitive strength is the traceability of the commodity through identity-preserved procurement. This enables customised blending (which again is a strength honed from the practice of tobacco blending over the years) to support local tastes and preferences. ITC's packaging business provides unique solutions and the division also draws upon the synergies of the group company in areas such as consumer insights, branding and e ff i c i e n t t r a d e m a r k e t i n g a n d distribution. The foods business is also able to utilise knowledge from ITC's hotels business and its master chefs when formulating its products.”

At the moment, ITC has seven brands in foods including Aashirvaad (staples and ready to eat), Bingo (snack foods), Sunfeast (Biscuits and Pasta), Yippee (instant noodles), Min-o and Candyman (Confectionery) and Kitchens of India (Ready to eat).

Of this, ITC has market leadership in staples and confectionery, is number two in instant noodles and ranks among the top three in biscuits, says Dhar.

In categories such as snacks, ITC has positioned itself as a player that offers differentiated products. Dhar says, “We have enriched the snacks portfolio with the introduction of a new variant called Tangles where each bite disintegrates into multiple flavour-filled strands. In biscuits, two unique flavours Sunfeast Dark Fantasy Choco Fills and Sunfeast 'Dual' Dream Cream were launched.”

This combined with its attempt at premiumising its portfolio have helped the division in logging better sales

numbers. Abneesh Roy, associate director, research, Edelweiss Capital, says, “Sales of value-added and premium products grew at a faster clip, leading to portfolio premiumisation and an enriched sales mix. Portfolio enrichment was driven by products such as Sunfeast Dark Fantasy Choco Fills and Sunfeast 'Dual' Dream Cream in biscuits. In staples, Aashirvaad multigrain and Select brands continued to grow rapidly.”

HUL hits back The Mumbai-headquartered company, which is also the largest FMCG company in the country, has put in a place a blueprint to get its act together in foods. In a recent announcement, HUL said that it was integrating its food services business called Unilever Food Solutions with its out-of-home division in a bid to enhance sales of its food brands.

An HUL spokesperson said, “Out of Home (OOH) Foods and Beverages consumption is a large and growing opportunity in India. In India, we operated in the B2B Institutional space through two separate divisions- Out of Home division for Beverages & Unilever Food Solutions for Foods.

These two divisions are being integrated into one OOH services organization in order to leverage the synergies & efficiencies of having a 'One Unilever' face to customers & a consolidated Go To Market organisation. “ But will it work? The HUL spokesperson says it will.

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News

T

Proposed rules on packaging may be deferred, relaxed

he government may defer the implementation of rules stipulating pack sizes and weights for consumer goods besides easing some of the proposed norms, especially at the lower end, in the wake of lobbying by industry.

The Third Amendment Rules under the Legal Metrological Act, 2011, are scheduled to be implemented by 1 July after having been unveiled on 24 October last year.

The new rules are aimed at helping consumers cut through the plethora of pack sizes and making it easier for them to compare prices among various brands. Some companies, faced with surging input costs over the past few years, have been able to camouflage price increases by reducing pack sizes.

The deadline may be extended by about two months, according to a senior official at the ministry of consumer affairs (MCA). He didn't want to be named as the ministry is expected to shortly issue a draft proposal in response to various industry representations on the suggested rules. It's not clear what the ultimate stance of the ministry will be.

The latest thinking on the part of the ministry, in contrast with what was proposed in October, is that there should be a relaxation on Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 packs.

“Weightage on these price points can be adjusted provided the weightage is

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mentioned,” the person said.

The ministry is also considering an increase in pack sizes, allowing companies greater flexibility in weightage options.

“But this will not come with frequent change in pack sizes and too many odd sizes,” he said.

Various industry bodies such as the Indian Beverage Association, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have been lobbying for a relaxation in the norms.

CII said the rules may be deferred by up to three-four months.

“After numerous rounds of meetings with the ministry, we expect some relief for the industry, given that huge inventory is at stake which would amount to huge capital losses. We want to ensure innovation is not hampered and availability of affordable price points to the BoP (bottom of the pyramid) consumer is not hindered,” said Meetu Kapoor, head (food and agriculture), CII. Most consumer goods companies said they were willing to comply with the regulations.

“We were given (about) a year's time to accommodate the new rules, which is more than enough,” said A. Mahendran, managing director, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, one of the largest

consumer goods companies in India and maker of personal care and household products such as Cinthol, Good Knight etc. “Some small and medium-sized companies that haven't prepared for the changes, may be affected,” he said.

He argued, however, that there should be some modification in the bottom of the pyramid segment. For instance, packaging below 50gm should be exempted from the amendment, he said.

According to Mahendran, companies may get a three-six month reprieve on the rules.

Tata Global Beverages Ltd, a leading seller of tea, coffee and bottled water, also sought a relaxation on smaller pack sizes.

“On smaller pack sizes or price point packs, our experience tells us the consumer looks at value outlay rather than a specific weight and therefore feel that there is merit in continuing with no standard grammages to cater to the needs of these consumers,” said Vikram Grover, vice-president (marketing), Tata Global Beverages.

According to the All India Food Processors' Association (AIFPA), the build-up of existing inventory is the reason why an extension is being sought.

“Companies cannot exhaust their existing inventory of non-standard packs up till 1 July,” hence the push for a delay, said D.V. Malhan, executive secretary, AIFPA.

News Japan clears world's first healthy cola

I

t's being called the world's first " healthy cola". Japan, that boasts of the world's most stringent food regulatory laws, has approved the world's first cola for being "beneficial to health".

The country's food regulatory authority has cleared 'Kirin Mets Cola' for the most sought after Foods for Specified Health Users (FOSHU) label. Japan's Health and Nutrition Food Association (JHNFA) says getting a highly sought after FOSHU certification - that can sometimes take over six months and cost as much as a million yen -- greatly boosts the credibility of approved products. Colas aren't really known for their health benefits. They are usually packed with sugar and have been fuelling the global epidemic of childhood obesity. However, according to JHNFA, this FOSHU labelled cola has zero amount of sugar and contains an indigestible form of Dextrin - a compound used as a fibre supplement, which restricts the body's ability to absorb fat while eating.

"When consumed with a high fat diet like a hamburger, the drink slows down the body's ability to absorb fat thereby saving you from putting on weight. It also helps in digesting the food easily," Akira Yabuki, general manager, department of FOSHU at JHFNA, told.

Yabuki added, "We are very strict with who is given the FOSHU label.

However, this was the first time that a cola was given such a FOSHU tag. It did satisfy requirements to be healthy. The drink doesn't contain sweeteners at all and tests have shown that the drink keeps levels of neutral fats low after eating."Experts say the cola's target demographic is youngsters who love cola but are worried about their weight, as well as those who have stopped buying soft drinks for health reasons.It was in 1987 that Japan's ministry of health and family welfare introduced functional foods. The FOSHU system was introduced in 1991 and the first FOSHU approval was given in 1993. It is an individually evaluated approval

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system that takes into account scientific evidence on effectiveness, safety and quality.

As of December 19, 2011, 983 products have been certified as FOSHU. Of these, 24% are soft drinks like tea-based beverages, mineral water, jelly or fruit beverages and powdered soft drink, 55% are dairy products like lactic acid bacteria beverages and cultured milk, 12% are processed foods like processed meat and fish, cooking oil, vinegar and sweeteners and 9% are sweets like candies, cookies, chewing gum and dehydrated soups.

"Data from clinical trials on 10 to 100 subjects have to clearly indicate the health benefit of the product. If it contains a new ingredient, testing and approving it for FOSHU can take 2-3 years time.

Some of the nutrient function claims that have cleared the FOSHU test includes Vitamin A which helps maintain good vision at night, iron which is necessary for red blood cell formation, calcium which is necessary for bone and teeth, folic acid which contributes to a normal development of a fetus and Vitamin E which helps protect fat in the body from being oxidized and helps maintain healthy cells," Yabuki said.A recent study said aerated drinks increases the chances of heart disease by 20% among those sipping them daily. Also, people who drink diet sodas every day have a 61% higher risk of bursting a blood vessel.

Even children, who consume 40-70 ml of soft drinks a day, may put on 3-5 kilos every year as one cola is equivalent to having seven to eight spoons of sugar at a time.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) along with nine institutes have been conducting a study that covers 10,000 households and involves interviews of nearly 70,000 people of all ages and social status to gauge how much aerated drinks Indians consume daily, monthly and annually, and what is the country's annual production of such drinks.

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

China clears way for Indian marine products

I

ndia's growing exports of marine food products to the lucrative $5.5 billion China market have received a boost after China's quarantine authority granted approval to Indian exporters, ending more than a year of uncertainty after the introduction of new regulations.

China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) last week announced that it had given the green light to 37 countries to export marine products, after orders had been suspended last year following a revision of safety regulations.

Countries were given one year to comply with the new regulations, put in place to ensure greater safety and in the wake of concerns over imports from Japan after the nuclear scares at Fukushima.

According to the rules, consignments had to be accompanied with certificates issued by the relevant country that met the new AQSIQ regulations.

India is the eighth biggest exporter of marine food products to the fast-growing China market, where consumption has rapidly grown with rising prosperity.

Indian exports of frozen fish products grew to $155.7 million in 2010, before falling to $148.8 million last year on account of the suspension of orders.

Exports reached $35 million in the first four months of this year.

E x p o r t s t o s u r g e Indian officials expect exports to surge following the announcement of the AQSIQ, which updated the list of approved countries as of May 31, 2012, on its website. “Indian exporters can now export their products without fear of their consignment being held up,� an official told. Officials believe exports could go beyond the $300 million-mark in a few years, with rising Chinese demand.

Other Asian countries that were granted approval were Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

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News

Indian tea exports to

Chinese market increasing steadily T

he aroma of Indian tea has wafted into the birthplace of the beverage across the Great Wall of China, where the GeNext is beginning to savour it as a preferred alternative to the home-grown variety.

Though China remains the world's largest producer of the beverage, it produces green leaf tea while the younger generation in the country is tasting new flavours of globalisation and turning towards the black tea grown in India.

"Young Chinese people find in black tea a lifestyle quotient, as they associate it more with the British or American way of life. It's more of a psychological thing that is driving this shift from green tea to black tea," said Ajay Kichlu, a veteran tea taster and director of Chamong Tee. The Kolkata-based company, which has started exporting black tea to China, expects to ship half-a-million kg of the beverage this year.

India is the leading producer of black tea, with an annual output of 985 million kg, while China's annual production of green leaf tea is much higher at 1,500 million kg.

Exporters expect to sell up to 10 million kg of black tea this year in China, where the demand is estimated to rise rapidly to 100 million kg by 2015. China's current share of the 200-million-kg black tea exported annually from India may be minuscule, but it signifies the opening up of a vast new market.

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"Though the Chinese are used to drinking green tea, we have seen that they ask for black tea instead of other beverages when they venture out to fastfood joints," said G Boriah, director (tea development) at the Tea Board.

"We have heard that mainly tea from North India is being exported to China.

The younger generation there prefers a stronger cup," Boriah added.

More Indians Turning to Green Tea The opening up of the Chinese market is great news for the Indian tea industry, said Aditya Khaitan, managing director of McLeod Russel India Ltd (MRIL), the world's biggest integrated tea company. "We have also started exporting black leaf tea to China and the Chinese are willing to pay the price that we are asking for," Khaitan said, adding that the export volumes were bound to pick up.

The growing acceptance of Indian tea in China appears to be part of a new global trend among younger consumers to try out different varieties of the beverage.

Just as black tea is gaining ground in China, more Indians are also turning to green tea. "We are planning something like green tea with green apple flavour, which may find a good market among the urban Indian youth," said Kichlu of Chamong Tee. The market share of green tea globally has risen to 31 per cent from 17 per cent over the past decade. Nonetheless, the departure from tradition is more

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

significant in China than perhaps anywhere else, simply because tea is more deeply entrenched in the culture of the land where it originated.

In China, tea is considered among the seven necessities, along with wood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar. The growing demand for Indian tea in China is heartening news also because exports to Britain, the biggest European market for the beverage, have dwindled from 22 million kg a year to 16 million kg over the past five years. Kenyan tea is gaining at the expense of the "thick" India black tea in Britain, whose annual consumption of the beverage is about 100 million kg, of which nearly 60 million kg is imported from Africa.

British consumers are shifting to varieties that have less tea content, such as camomile tea and lemon tea.

"Supermarket brands have shown a decline in the UK while sales of better packaged tea, from Taylors of Harrogate, for instance, are increasing," said MRIL Director Azam Monem.

At the same time, the demand for Indian tea is growing in West Asia and Pakistan.

Though Pakistan has largely depended on Kenya to meet its annual domestic demand of 135 million kg, it imported 23 million kg tea from India last year. The government has selected the US, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran and Egypt as strategically important markets to push tea exports over the next five years.

News

China grain imports to rise, India eyes more export

C

hina will import more corn and soybeans next season to keep pace with growing domestic demand, while fellow emerging giant India is trying to export more of its record wheat and rice crops to reduce its surplus, officials said. China, already the world's largest soybean importer, is expected to increase its imports of the oilseed to 57.5 million tonnes in 2012/13 from 55 million in the current season, the state-owned China Grain Reserves Corporation (Sinograin) said.

That is partly due to expectations for a smaller domestic crop this year, forecast to drop to 14 million tonnes from 14.5 million in 2011/12, Bingzhou Cheng, director-general of Sinograin's general affairs department, told the International Grains Council's (IGC) annual conference. Corn imports by China were projected to rise to 5 million tonnes from 3.5 million in 2011/12, with a forecast rise in the local crop to be outstripped by rising industrial and animal-feed demand, he said.

"It is foreseeable that corn consumption in China will maintain rapid growth," he said, speaking via an interpreter.

Booming demand for corn, mainly to feed livestock reared to meet rising meat demand in China, has become a focal point for global grain markets.

Other forecasters see China's corn imports needs as bigger than Sinograin's estimate, with the China National Grain and Oils Information Center (CNGOIC) last month forecasting 6 million tonnes in 2012/13 and the IGC and the US Department of Agriculture both projecting 7 million tonnes.

As a sign of mounting industrial demand

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for grains, use of grains and soybeans for animal-feed making and other industries exceeded that for food for the first time in 2011, Cheng said. Sinograin forecasts a higher Chinese corn crop of 192.5 million tonnes this year, up slightly from 191.75 million in 2011, as record local prices encouraged farmers to plant more, he said.

The soybean crop would fall to 14 million tonnes from 14.5 million. India is aiming to export more of an estimated wheat export surplus of five to six million tonnes after shipping about one million tonnes so far this season, an official with India's Department of Food and Public Distribution said.

India is currently holding a tender to export wheat from its public stocks as the country tries to lighten reserves swollen by a record crop last year.

Wheat inventory at government warehouses surged to a record 50.2 million tonnes on June 1, raising concerns a significant amount of grain will rot. Nilambuj Sharan, a director at the Department of Food and Public Distribution, told the IGC conference that India expected to remain in surplus for grains in the coming years. "If there is any surplus, exports would be allowed," he said. Indian government sources have said there have been talks about possible wheat exports to Iran under a bilateral deal with the sanctionshit country, but Sharan said he was not aware of any special export arrangements for Iran. India has also exported five million tonnes of rice so far in 2011/12 and had the potential to export more after a record crop in 2011, he said.

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

Storage crisis India asks Malaysia to explore bulk wheat buy

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ith surplus wheat stocks, India has asked Malaysia to explore possibility of importing the grain in large quantities from the country.

The country, the world's second largest wheat producer, is grappling with the problem of plenty after an estimated record wheat output of 90.23 million tonnes in the 2011-12 crop year (JulyJune).

"I made a suggestion to Malaysia to consider importing wheat in bulk from India," Food Minister K V Thomas told reporters after the meeting with Malaysia's Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, here.

The Southeast Asian country has been asked to consider wheat imports from India both through private trade and diplomatic route, he said.

Currently, India is working on various options, including wheat exports to various countries to ease domestic storage crisis, which is mounting as rice and wheat stock in the government godowns has already crossed 70 million tonnes, against the storage capacity of 63 million tonnes.

The government's foodgrain stocks have risen due to record procurement in the last few years following bumper production.

The Malaysian delegation is on a six-day visit to India to strengthen bilateral relations.

Bilateral trade between India and Malaysia touched a record USD 12.5 billion in 2011.

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Oil & Food Journal June 2012

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Oil & Food Journal June 2012

Cruit old Proceing Chain F

Assessing Functional Phytochemicals During

Fruit Processing

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NTRODUCTION Phytochemicals can be defined, in the strictest sense, as chemicals produced by plants.

However, the term is generally used to describe chemicals from plants that may affect health, but are not essential nutrients. There is ample evidence to support the health benefits of diets rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts. Because plant-based foods are complex mixtures of bioactive compounds, information on the potential health effects of individual phytochemicals is linked to information on the health effects of foods that contain those phytochemicals.

Phytochemicals are plant or fruit derived chemical compounds. "Phytonutrients" refer to phytochemicals or compounds that come from edible plants.

There is abundant evidence from epidemiological studies that the phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables can significantly reduce the risk of cancer, probably due to polyphenol antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

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Phytochemicals have been used as drugs for millennia. For example, Hippocrates in 400 BC used to prescribe willow tree leaves to abate fever. Salicin, with potent anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, was originally extracted from the White Willow Tree and later synthetically produced to become the staple over the counter drug called Aspirin.

The number one drug for cancer worldwide Taxol (paclitaxel), is a phytochemical initially extracted and purified from the Pacific Yew Tree.

Among edible plants with health promoting phytochemicals, Diindolylmethane, from Brassica vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts) is currently used as a treatment for Recurring Respiratory Papillomatosistumours' (caused by the Human Papilloma Virus), it is in Phase III clinical trials for Cervical Dysplasia (a precancerous condition caused by the Human Papilloma Virus) and is in clinical trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute of the United States for a

Fruit Proceing variety of cancers (breast, prostate, lung, colon, and cervical). The compound has potent anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anticancer properties through a variety of pathways and it has also been shown to synergize with Taxol in its anti-cancer properties, making it potentially a very important anti-cancer phytonutrient as taxol resistance is a major problem for cancer patients worldwide.

Sometimes some of the compounds in plants with potent medicinal properties may not necessarily be chemicals, but may be elements, such as selenium found abundantly in Brassica vegetables with potent anti-viral and anti-cancer properties. In a human clinical trial, selenium supplementation has been shown to reduce the HIV viral load and is currently being recommended worldwide by physicians as an adjuvant nutritional supplement to AIDS

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treatments. It has also been shown to reduce mortality among prostate cancer patients.

There are currently many other phytochemicals with potent medicinal properties that are in clinical trials for a variety of diseases. Lycopene, for example, from tomatoes is in clinical trials for cardiovascular diseases and prostate cancer. Human clinical trials have demonstrated that lycopene helps to improve blood flow through the heart and clinical studies suggest anti-cancer activity against prostate cancer. Lutein and zeaxanthin from spinach have been shown through clinical trials to directly improve human visual performance and help prevent the onset of macular degeneration and cataracts.

In a landmark nutritional sciences study, scientists demonstrated that a diet rich in tomatoes and broccoli was more

effective in inhibiting prostate cancer growth than a leading drug for prostate cancer. Clinical investigations are ongoing worldwide on thousands of phytochemicals with medicinal properties.

FOOD PROCESSING AND PHYTOCHEMICALS Phytochemicals in freshly harvested plant foods may be destroyed or removed by modern processing techniques, possibly including cooking.

For this reason, industrially processed foods likely contain fewer phytochemicals and may thus be less beneficial than unprocessed foods.

Absence or deficiency of phytochemicals in processed foods is believed to have contributed to the increased prevalence of the above-cited preventable or treatable causes of death in contemporary society. Interestingly though, lycopene, a phytochemical present in tomatoes, is concentrated in processed foods such as spaghetti sauce and ketchup, making those foods better sources of lycopene than fresh tomatoes.

Phytochemicals are non-nutritive plant chemicals that possess protective roles in the humanbody, against disease.

These phytochemicals are considered to be biologically activesecondary metabolites that also provide color and flavor, and are commonly referred to asnutraceuticals. There are thousands of known phytochemicals, which have beenfound to be derived mainly from phenylalanine and tyrosine, and which perform a varietyof functions such as pigmentation, ant oxidation, protection against UV light, etc. Evidences of the benefits to human-health associated with the consumption ofplant-derived phytochemicals have caused an increase in the demand for fresh-like fruitsand vegetables. where are present in different forms as alkaloids (e.g., caffeine andthrebromine), carotenoids (e.g. lycopene), flavonoids (e.g., flavon3-ols), isoflavones (e.g.genistein), phenolic acids (e.g., capsaicin, Gallic acid and tannic acid), etc., depending on plant species.

The health-promoting effects of many phytochemicals are attributed mainly to

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Fruit Proceing heirantioxidant activity, although there could also be other modes of action.

Fruit andvegetables are known to contain significant amounts of phytochemicals with free-radicaland non-radical scavenging capacity towards reactive oxygen species. These deleterioussubstances have been identified as toxic against cell tissues, thus causing oxidative damageto proteins, membrane lipids and DNA, inhibiting enzymatic pathways, and inducing genemutation. It is believed that these processes are underpinning several chronic human diseases such as diabetes, certain forms of cancer as well as some cardiovascular anddegenerative diseases.

Changes in the concentration of phytochemicals through processing and storage can reatly compromise the quality, and eventually the acceptance of a food. Despite most of thesecompounds, to some extent, may be affected by abusive temperatures, thermal processingremain the most commonly used technology for inactivating microorganisms and enzymesin processed food. However, during thermal processing, in addition to the inactivation ofmicroorganism, sensory and nutritional compounds of plant-based foods are negativeaffected.

The consumers demand towards products that keep their original nutritious valuesand, in this context, non-thermal technologies are preservation treatments that are effective at mild temperatures (up to 40 ºC), thereby minimising negative thermal effects onnutritional and quality of products. These non-thermal processes ensure microbial andPhytochemicals – enzyme inactivation with reduced effects on nutritional and quality parameters.

Nonthermaltechnologies as, pulsed electric fields (PEF), high pressure (HP), irradiation orultrasounds have been studied and developed during the last decades with the final aim ofimplementing them at an industrial level. The impact of non-thermal technologies onmicroorganisms, enzymes and quality-related parameters has been extensively 32

reviewed.However, many efforts in the last years have been made to evaluate the impact of PEF, HP,irradiation and ultrasounds on the stability of phytochemicals. The present review aims at reviewing the effects of nonthermal technologies on health-related compounds in plantbased products.

THE TOP 10 PHYTONUTRIENT RICH FOODS 1.soy – protease inhibitors, beta sitosterol, saponins, phytic acid, isoflavones 2.tomato – lycopene, beta carotene, vitamin C 3.broccoli – vitamin C, 3,3'Diindolylmethane, sulphoraphane, lignans, selenium 4.garlic – thiosulphonates, limonene, quercitin 5.flax seeds – lignans 6.citrus fruits – monoterpenes, coumarin, cryptoxanthin, vitamin C, ferulic acid, oxalic acid 7.blueberries – tannic acid, lignans, anthocyanins 8.sweet potatoes – beta carotene 9.chilli peppers – capsaicin 10. legumes: beans, peas, lentils –omega fatty acids, saponins, catechins, quercitin, lutein, lignans RATIONAL FOR A NUTRITIONAL AUDIT TO FRUIT PROCESSING Industrial processing assures the regular

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supply offruit matrices, year-round and across the globe.Additionally, it makes possible the creation of anenormous diversity of fruit-based or fruitflavouredfood and beverages.

Fruit processing can be dividedinto two types of operations, often performed by specializedcompanies: The first and second transformations.

First and second Transformation: First transformation converts the perishable freshfruit into more stable processed products with longerstorage lives. The most common processing methodsused in first transformation are individually quickfreezing (IQF) of fruit pieces, aseptic pulps and pureesand concentrated pulps and juices. Second transformationoperations use frozen fruit or aseptic matrices,combine them with other food ingredients (e.g.flavourings, colorants, hydrocolloids) and apply heattreatments t o a s s u r e m i c r o b i a l s t a b i l i t y.

Thesepreparates can be subsequently used to develop awide range of fruitbased or fruit-flavoured foodproducts such as beverages, dairy products (e.g. fruityoghurt or cheese), and ice-cream or pastry products.

Fresh fruit matrices are dramatically changed during processingdue to the rupture of cell compartmentation anddirect exposure of fruit substances to

Fruit Proceing air, the physical effectof processing agents (e.g., freezing and heating), andthe interaction of fruit cellular contents with other foodingredients.

How the final nutritional and phytochemicalcomposition of processed fruit-based foods and beveragesrelates to that of fresh fruit remains largely unknown.

There is strong epidemiological evidence for the benefitsof fresh fruit consumption for the preservation humanhealth. Fruit are a valuable source of vitamin C, bioactivephenolic compounds, and carotenoids. These are naturalfruit components able to prevent oxidative stress, thusbenefiting human health, and should be considering as akey quality attribute of fruit and their products. It is,therefore, warranted to assess whether processed fruitpreserve these beneficial substances present in freshfruit. In fact, processing can increase or decrease the solubility and bioavailability of phytochemical substancesand nutrients from fruit matrices becoming more accessibleto extraction or liberation. For example, the releaseof lycopene in tomato is enhanced by heat treatmentsand tomato concentrate (and food products made thereof,e.g. ketchup) has more bioavailable lycopene then thefresh counterpart.

Here we describe an approach to the nutritional andfunctional audit of fruit processing, aimed at assuring abetter relation between the composition of fresh andprocessed fruit. The experimental data were obtained intwo model systems – strawberry and peach, rich in phenolicand carotenoid phytochemicals, respectively.

PROCESSING PARAMETERS AND NUTRITIONALQUALITY Thermal processing is widely usedin the food industry due to itsproved efficacy in preventing enzymaticchanges and microbialspoilage. Heat treatments, however,may cause undesirable biochemicalchanges that affect the sensorialand nutritional quality of the finalproduct. Thermal decomposition isa major cause for losses of some ofthe bioactive compounds. Lossescan be

33

mitigated if processing parameters,such as temperature andholding time, are adjusted to assurenutritional preservation in additionto microbial safety.

Freezing is another very importantmethod for preserving fruit qualityduring long-term storage.

Duringfreezing most of the liquid water isconverted into ice, reducing microbialgrowth and most enzymaticactivities nearly to zero.

However,freezing causes physical and chemical changes in fruit matrices due to the ice formation and subsequent stresses in cell volume, water displacement among pools, and mechanicaldamage.

Storage time after processing is a keyvariable with enormous implicationsin supply-chain management. Time,however, is a central variable requiringmanagement in all kineticprocesses and determining the finalconcentrations of nutritional andbioactive compounds in foods andbeverages. Chemical reactions involvingbioactive phytochemicals proceedat different rates depending on variablesintrinsic to food matrices aswell as on variables related to processingconditions (e.g., aw, pH, temperature,oxygen availability).

DEVELOPMENT OF A N U T R I T I O N A L A N D

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FUNCTIONALAUDITING SYSTEM Unit operations used in particularprocesses vary, but all processes mustassure food safety, compliance withregulations, and product quality tomeet consumer expectations. Thisthought process can be used to identifycritical points in which nutritionalquality can be compromised and supportan audit system.

The purpose of the nutritional audit is to determine the impact ofprocessing conditions on fruit phytochemicals and to identify criticalpoints in which nutritional quality can be severely compromised.

An overall evaluation of the processing system is required to determinewhether the system adequately preserves nutritional and functionalproperties of fruit-based foods and beverages. To develop theaudit system one must: A. Identify the phytochemical markers that might relate to the overallnutritional and functional quality of the matrix.

B. Analyse the process diagram to identify critical points where nutritionalquality can be compromised.

F r e e z i n g , i n g r e d i e n t incorporation,pasteurization, and storage time were considered critical operationsand their effects on phytochemicals were studied

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Fruit Proceing

CONCLUSION Processing operations affect the extraction of phytochemicalsfrom fruit matrices. Freezing can bring somebenefits for fruits rich in phenolics since it increases intheir extraction from the matrix. However, it is not advantageousfor fruit rich in carotenoids due to an importantloss of this class of phytochemicals. Fruits like peach are more resistant to thermal treatmentthan strawberry where loss in anthocyanin is significant.

Freezing of juices leads to upsurge subsequent losses by the heat treatment.The addition of non-fruit food ingredients alsointeract with the matrices and may enhance the phytochemicalvalue of fruit-based foods and beverages.Storage time after 36

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

treatments affects more strongly strawberryphenolics and carotenoids. In fact increased solubility of some peach phenolics was observed. Most of the phenolicsare more easily preserved than the carotenoids butanthocyanins are labile. Carotenoids like zeaxanthine and-cryptoxanthine and anthocyanin like cyanidin-3-glucoside,pelargonidin3-glucoside and pelargonidin-3rutinoside can be used as markers to audit the effects ofprocessing conditions on fruit phytochemicals. Also Non thermal technologies may allow obtaining safe and shelf-stable plantbased productswith minor changes or increased content in health-related phytochemicals. Most differencesbetween non thermal and heat treatments can be explained

through the temperaturesreached through processing. In general, temperature during processing and storage areimportant factors affecting the phytochemicals of the processed product. The stability ofthese compounds through storage is dependent in each case on the residual amounts ofenzymes involved in their degradation. In addition, processing parameters are involved inthe degradation or generation of bioactive compounds. In-depth research is needed in orderto elucidate the mechanisms involved in the destruction or generation of these compoundsin a food matrix processed by these novel technologies.

News A failed food system: India's grain piles up, yet the poor go hungry

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n this north Indian village, workers recently dismantled stacks of burned and mildewed rice while flies swarmed nearby over spoiled wheat. Local residents said the rice crop had been sitting along the side of a highway for several years and was now being sent to a distillery to be turned into liquor.

Just 180 miles to the south, in a slum on the outskirts of New Delhi, Leela Devi struggled to feed her family of four on meagre portions of flatbread and potatoes, which she said were all she could afford on her disability pension and the irregular wages of her daylabourer husband. Her family is among the estimated 250 million Indians who do not get enough to eat.

Such is the paradox of plenty in India's food system. Spurred by agricultural innovation and generous farm subsidies, India now grows so much food that it has a bigger grain stockpile than any country except China, and it exports some of it to countries like Saudi Arabia and Australia. Yet one-fifth of its people are malnourished - double the rate of other developing countries like Vietnam and China - because of pervasive corruption, mismanagement and waste in the programs that are supposed to distribute food to the poor.

“The reason we are facing this problem is our refusal to distribute the grain that we buy from farmers to the people who need it," said Biraj Patniak, a lawyer who advises India's Supreme Court on food issues. "The only place that this grain deserves to be is in the stomachs of the people who are hungry."

After years of neglect, the nation's failed food policies have now become a subject of intense debate in New Delhi, with lawmakers, advocates for the poor, economists and the news media increasingly calling for an overhaul. The populist national government is considering legislation that would pour billions of additional dollars into the system and double the number of people served to two-thirds of the population. The proposed law would also allow the poor to buy more rice and wheat at lower prices.

Proponents say the new law, if written and executed well, could help ensure that nobody goes hungry in India, the world's secondmost populous country behind China. But critics say that without fundamental system reforms, the extra money will only deepen the nation's budget deficit and further enrich the officials who routinely steal food from various levels of the distribution chain.

India's food policy has two central goals: to provide farmers with higher and more

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consistent prices for their crops than they would get from the open market, and to sell food grains to the poor at lower prices than they would pay at private stores.

The federal government buys grain and stores it. Each state can take a certain amount of grain from these stocks based on how many of its residents are poor. The states deliver the grain to subsidized shops and decide which families get the ration cards that allow them to buy cheap wheat and rice there.The sprawling system costs the government 750 billion rupees ($13.6 billion) a year, almost 1 per cent of India's gross domestic product. Yet 21 per cent of the country's 1.2 billion people remain undernourished, a proportion that has changed little in the last two decades despite an almost 50 per cent increase in food production, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, a research group in Washington.

The new food security law could more than double the government's outlays to 2 trillion rupees a year, according to some estimates.

Much of the extra money would go to buy more grain, even though the government already has a tremendous stockpile of wheat and rice - 71 million tons as of early May, up 20 per cent from a year earlier.

"India is paying the price of an unexpected success - our production of rice and wheat has surged and procurement has been better than ever," said Kaushik Basu, the chief economic adviser to India's Finance Ministry and a professor at Cornell University. "This success is showing up some of the gaps in our policy.”The biggest gap is the inefficient, corrupt system used to get the food to those who need it. Just 41.4 per cent of the grain picked up by the states from federal warehouses reaches Indian homes, according t o a r e c e n t Wo r l d B a n k s t u d y.

Critics say officials all along the chain, from warehouse managers to shopkeepers, steal food and sell it to traders, pocketing tidy, illicit profits.

Poor Indians who have ration cards often complain about both the quality and quantity of grain available at government stores, called fair price shops.Other families do not even have ration cards because of the procedures - and often, bribes - required to get them. Some are denied because they cannot document their residence or income.

And critics say more people would qualify if the income cutoff were raised; in New Delhi, it is 2,000 rupees ($36) a month, regardless of family size, a sum that many poor families s p e n d o n r e n t a l o n e .

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Ms. Devi, who lives in the Jagdamba Camp slum in south Delhi, said she was denied a ration card four years ago. She said her family's steadiest income is a disability pension of 1,000 rupees a month she gets because of burns suffered in an accident a few years ago. While her husband sometimes earns up to 3,000 rupees a month as a labourer, she says she should be entitled to subsidized grain since they must often get by on 2,000 rupees or less.

“Sometimes, we just have to sit and wait," she said. "My mother-in-law gets subsidized food and she gives me some when she can."

Indian officials say they are addressing the system's problems. Some states, like Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh, have made big improvements by using technology to track food and have made it easier for almost all households to get ration cards. Other states, like Bihar, have experimented with food stamps. Reformers argue that India should move toward giving the poor cash or food stamps as the United States, Mexico and other countries have done. That would reduce corruption and mismanagement because the government would buy and store only enough grain to insure against bad harvests. And the poor would get more choices, said Ashok Gulati, chairman of the government's Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.

"Why only wheat and rice? If he wants to have eggs, or fruits, or some vegetables, he should be given that option," Mr. Gulati said.

"You need to augment his income. Then, the distribution, you leave it to the private sector."

But most officials say they are worried that if India switched to food stamps, men would trade them for liquor or tobacco, depriving their families of enough to eat.

"It has to improve, I have no doubt about it," said K. V. Thomas, India's minister for food, consumer affairs and public distribution.

"But this is the only system that can work in our country.” Officials say Parliament is likely to vote on a new food policy at the end of the year. In the meantime, the government is working on temporary solutions to its grain storage problems, putting up new silos and exporting more rice.

Still, much of it is likely to keep sitting on the side of the road here in Punjab.

"It's painful to watch," said Gurdeep Singh, a farmer from near Ranwan who recently sold his wheat harvest to the government. "The government is big and powerful. It should be able to put up a shed to store this crop."

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Iran needs 2m tonnes of wheat to dodge impact of sanctions

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ran needs to buy some two million tonnes of milling wheat in the next few months after having already imported three million so far this year, a member of the French grain exporters' lobby said, as the country dodges sanctions to shop for wheat at a frantic pace.

Iran has ordered a large part of its expected yearly wheat requirement in a little over one month and has paid a premium in non-dollar currencies to work around western sanctions and avoid social unrest.

“According to the people we spoke to at the Iranian millers chamber, three million tonnes of wheat has arrived since the start of the year,” an official with France Export Cereals said.

Members of the industry group were in Iran last week to promote French wheat through a technical seminar with over 140 millers and bakers. It was the sixth seminar of the kind in Teheran.

“They (the Iranians) estimate their needs at a total five million tonnes,” with the additional imports over the next few months, the official added. Official tenders and traders' reports show that the Iranian government and private buyers have purchased over two million tonnes of bread wheat from Germany, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan and even the United States, but the exact volumes and delivery dates are not clear.

Iran also has approached Pakistan and 39

India, but doubts have been expressed over whether the barter deals announced will be reached. Iran's import needs depend on the progression of its own harvest, which started early last month in the southern part of the country and s h o u l d l a s t u n t i l S e p53 t e m b e r.

Some European traders questioned the lobby's figure of three million tonnes already imported, saying it could not be matched by exporting countries' shipping data. “Deliveries are not working that well,” one said. “I doubt there is already three million tonnes in the country.”

Traders said the Middle Eastern country's total needs this season could reach as much as eight million tonnes.

Food shipments are not targeted under western sanctions aimed at Iran's disputed nuclear programme, but financial measures have frozen Iranian firms out of much of the global banking system.

The French lobby official said that state buyers he met explained that GTC (Government Trading Corporation) purchases made in recent months were linked to a shortage of feed grains maize, barley and feed wheat - as the sanctions made it difficult for private buyers to find supplies.

“A lot of (milling) wheat was used to feed animals at the cost of human food.

As a result GTC was forced to react and buy milling wheat on the world market

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to ensure supplies,” he said.

“They did not give us the feeling of trying to build extraordinary stocks but rather to react to feed grain supply difficulties due to financial sanctions,” he said, adding that GTC officials did not seem worried about obtaining supplies.

Iranian officials told the French delegation that they were seeking to maintain a sufficient level of wheat stocks, because the country had imported little wheat last season and did not want to have to deal with a shortage.

The French lobby said Iranians had cited 3.5 million tonnes as an estimate for these stocks, while traders say this is a minimum now while trade financing is difficult.

“Iranians are constantly buyers,” one trader said. “The harvest will be normal.

Why would they want to buy so much if it wasn't for building stocks, and as soon aspossible?

Iran has a large livestock farming sector and needs to import grain to feed its population.

Its wheat harvest is expected to reach 14 million tonnes, which would be within the average of 13-15 million tonnes, the French official said. Last month, the United Nations' food agency FAO had said Iran's 2012 wheat output would probably fall below 2011 levels to 13.5 million tonnes, hit by erratic rainfall in the main wheat producing areas.

News

DSM

presents Science & Technology Awards (North) 2012

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hang Chen has been awarded first prize in the DSM Science & Technology Awards (North) 2012 for his PhD research in the field of nanoscience for label-free genomic sequencing.

Chang Chen, who received his doctorate from KU Leuven in Belgium, was selected by an international judging committee, chaired by DSM Chief Technology Officer Marcel Wubbolts.

Dr. Chen's research successfully combines the strengths of two powerful technologies, Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) and nanopore fluidics, to develop a novel method allowing direct and rapid identification of DNA base molecules down to the single molecule level, which can be a very promising new sequencing technology. The application potential of the winning research extends to many fields, including food and pharmaceutical sciences, and may prove to be an important step towards true personalized medicine. As the winner of the first prize, Chang Chen will receive a cash prize of €10,000.

Second prize (€5,000) was awarded to Richard Stevens of the University of Twente (Netherlands) for his PhD thesis

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'Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence'. Third prize (€2,500) was awarded to Veerle Bieghs of Maastricht University (Netherlands) for her PhD thesis 'Kupffer cells in fatty liver disease: does size really matter?'. The other six finalists (see list below) will each receive a cash prize of € 1,250.

The winners were announced at a dedicated event held at Bilderberg K a s t e e l Va a l s b r o e k i n Va a l s (Netherlands) on June 12, with the awards being presented by Dr. Rob van Leen, Chief Innovation Officer of DSM. Dr. Van Leen: “DSM has a long tradition of honoring PhD researchers who are working at the cutting edge of science, because these are the people who are setting the stage for tomorrow's innovations.”

The judging committee's report In its report, the judging committee commended the high quality of the work of all the finalists. About its selection of Dr. Chen as first-prize winner, the committee said that the most striking aspect of his research is that it has made an important original contribution in bringing SERS application one big step forward, thereby not only attracting academic attention but also gaining

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significant industrial interest: 'The application potential of nanopore SERS technology goes far beyond genome detection and sequencing, and its generality has relevance to broad fields of trace molecule analysis, covering food science and pharmaceutical science'.

The winners of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes First prize: Chang Chen, who conducted his research at the Imec research institute (Belgium) and the Department of Chemistry at KU Leuven (Belgium) under the supervision of Prof.

Gustaaf Borghs and Prof. Guido Maes.

Thesis title: 'Plasmonic nanopores for direct molecular identification'.

Second prize: Richard Stevens, who conducted his research at the Department of Applied Physics, University of Twente (Netherlands), under the supervision of Prof. D. Lohse.

Thesis title: 'Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence'. Third prize: Veerle Bieghs, who conducted her research at the Department of Molecular Genetics, Maastricht University (Netherlands), under the supervision of Prof. A. Schols and Dr. R. Shiri-Sverdlov. Thesis title: 'Kupffer cells in fatty liver disease: does size really matter?'.

Interview

Fruitforprocessors profitability

food processing technologies look for value added

HRS Process Systems Limited (PSL) is a pioneer in bringing the revolutionary ECOFLUX* corrugated tube and Unicus* dynamic scraped surface heat exchanger technology to the process industry. They provide total solution for food / fruit processing industry like heaters, chillers, pasteurizers, aseptic process lines, diced fruit, cooked food and host of other process lines for various applications.

Recently we interviewed V Gokuldas, Managing Director, HRS PSL about their latest launch of HRS PARADICE Diced Fruit Pasteurizer for the Indian Market.

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Interview Mr Gokuldas, we have recently heard that HRS Process Systems has launched 'HRS ParaDice' Diced Fruit Pasteurizer' for the Indian market; can you please brief us about the silent features of the same?

We launched 'HRS ParaDice' during the Food & Bev Tec 2012 exhibition. HRS ParaDice has been specially designed for the food processing industry and has the ability to cater to both fruit and vegetable processing. The key features of HRS ParaDice are: · Energy efficient ECOFLUX* 'DT' series hygienic corrugated tube heat exchanger · HRS Hygienic Piston Pump · Sanitary type flow diversion valves · Stainless steel CIP pump for faster cleaning of heat exchangers and piping · Specially designed feed / balance tank. · Closed loop hot water system consisting ECOFLUX* 'K' series tubular heat exchangers for steam economy. · PLC based instrument control panel including VFD, HMI temperature controllers for trouble free operation This product can also be used for blanching of vegetables, pasteurization and chilling of ready-to-eat fruits.

How do you look at the Indian fruits & vegetables processing segment for the next 5-10 years?

India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables. More than 70% of India's population still depends on the agricultural sector, which in turn offers huge potential in the food sector.

Processing of fruits and vegetables

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increases their shelf life leading to reduction in wastage. India has a huge potential for processed food products.

Health conscious consumers, rising income levels, changing lifestyles and rapid urbanization has led to a shift in consumer preferences for processed foods.

They are on the lookout for convenience, easy to use food that is natural and maintains original flavour. Various food processing companies now understand this major shift and are offering solutions to meet consumer requirements. Hence the Indian fruits & vegetables processing segment is surely on boom and foresees tremendous growth potential in the coming years.

How this Pasteurizer would benefit fruits & vegetables processing companies?

The fruit processing industry is passing through the phase of growth where the demand for traditional or standard products is stabilizing and with global availability there is pressure on profitability. Increasing cost of packaging material and decreasing fruit pulp prices in the international market is building pressure on the fruit processors, who are on the lookout for value added food processing technology to enhance their profitability HRS ParaDice has been equipped to cater to both fruit and vegetables. The fruit dices can be pasteurised or aseptically processed and packed. HRS ParaDice pasteuriser can be used for blanching of vegetables, pasteurization and chilling. This innovative processing technology opens

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up a huge potential of applications for fruits and vegetables, which will bring in better remuneration to both the processors and the farmers.

What kind of response you are expecting for 'Diced Fruit Pasteurizer' after its launch?

Presently there is a limited amount of food produce being processed, primarily due to lack of technology as available in other sectors and also due to unique nature of food products – heat sensitive, perishable, need right aroma and flavour amongst others. We foresee a healthy business potential in the coming years which will enable processors launch new products too.

Who will be you target customers for 'Diced Fruit Pasteurizer' in India (Names of the big processors)?

Processed diced fruits and vegetables are in high demand due to their end use in ice-creams, beverages, puddings, desserts, soups. Our target Customers vary from small / medium processors to end users. Each will have a role to play in fulfilling the Consumer demands for different type of products.

Would you also be targeting other Indian sub-continent countries for it?

We operate with our technology at global level and Indian sub-continent and South East Asia are our markets too. We are also looking at some African countries where fruit processing holds good potential.

Food Packaing

T FOOD PACKAGING

REVOLUTIONIN THE RETAIL SECTORA

GLOBALREPORT 44

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he world needs packaging for two reasons, firstly, to provide food for all people around the world and second to facilitate a global free trade, a prerequisite for countries to develop and increase their standard of living.

Today we waste huge amounts of food due to improper packaging, transport and storage, especially in less developed countries where large groups of the populations move to the cities to find an income. We need only to compare the food waste figures between the Western world and the less developed countries: 2-3 % vs. 50%.

At the same time the globalisation of the world economy has made it natural for companies that previously focused their activities on national markets to move towards new markets around the world.

In addition to extending its markets, a company acting in the global arena also strives for cost reductions through scale economies in marketing, production and purchasing as well as through focused

Food Packaing manufacturing and/or assembly operations, logistics and product development. Packaging is one of the important facilitator to accomplish market growth along with modern information technology and a welldesigned and applied supply chain.

The retail industry is a driving force in packaging material selections and packaging designs used in supply chains. It pays much attention to the consumer package, as well as the transport package as they both are important to ensure product quality and low cost distribution.

Besides the retail industry the automotive industry is considered a driving force in packaging development.

Here, the transport package is the main interest as it will facilitate the transport; handling and storage of components bought all over the world and brought to the car assembly line. The transport package must be effective and efficient in the supply chain but in addition aid in the assembly line. The personnel should not need to spend time opening packages and checking the product. They should be sure of grabbing the right product and installing it without worries about variations and malfunction.

It is obvious in both the retail environment and automotive environment that excellence cannot be achieved in packaging selection if the designer or design team does not know the following: what is required to effectively and efficiently distribute the products; what products require to survive the supply chain; what materials can be used in the package; the converting possibilities available to transform the materials into useful packages; the packing conditions available. The designer/the design team also need to have knowledge of logistics, sales methods and consumer demands as well as manufacturing demands.

The definition of packaging is “a coordinated system of preparing goods for safe, efficient and cost-effective transport, distribution, storage, retailing, consumption and recovery, reuse or disposal combined with maximising consumer value, sales and hence profit”,

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so there ought not to be any doubt of the importance of this system's view when it comes to packaging design and use.

Packaging interdependence with successful logistics The damage rate of products is one way of describing the supply chain performance in different markets. The packaging materials and designs that are needed will be influenced by consumer demands and handling, storage and transport conditions. The hazards and loads in a logistic system/supply chain will in turn be influenced by packaging design and handling methods as well as products. For example: A sack holding 50 kilos will be handled differently from a sack holding 10 kilos. The heavy sack may be put on a man's shoulder, carried to the point of destination and there dropped there on the floor, while the 10kilo sack will be thrown between the men handling the sack. If the product had been packed in a corrugated board box, the handling method would consequently have been selected differently probably some kind of tool, such as a trolley, would be used.

The consequence is that the product as well as the type of package chosen and the handling, storage and transport will influence the supply chain efficiency and effectiveness and subsequently the company profit. Thus there is interdependency between packaging design and supply chain design. It is my conviction that a packaging designer needs logistics knowledge and a logistician needs packaging knowledge.

Today this is seldom the case beyond some shared common know-how as described above.

In a competitive market place, the consumer/customer views are important. More and more companies have the goal of making their organisations consumer/customer oriented to ensure that their businesses will be successful because they meet customer needs and expectations at the same time as they create customer values. The competition has developed new retail structures in many countries and altered supply systems. It has often aided retailers to gain power and control

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

over the supply from manufacturers, producers and wholesalers and made it possible to stipulate transport, handling and packaging. Just take Wal Mart and IKEA as examples. Some of their logistics changes have been driven by legal requirements on safe handling as well as the producer's responsibility for used materials. Others have been influenced by new views on food products and their health aspects. Still other changes depend on volatile consumer/customer demands and requirements. New products are also developed by both manufacturers and retailers.

To become successful it is necessary for product developers, manufacturers as well as distributors to pay attention to both the packaging needs, designs as well as supply chain design – to continuously improve the details to meet the different requirements in different steps. Continuous attention to details is often more important and successful in accomplishing cost saving than major changes carried out on just one occasion.

The present globalscenario in stateof-the-art packaging trends Today's food packaging can interact with consumers more effectively than ever, both before and after purchase.

Packaging plays a pivotal role in today's ultra-competitive food retail sector.

Innovative packaging and graphic design does more than make food products appealing to browsing customers.

Whether it's making products friendly for children or friendly for the environment, good design makes an impact with consumers, building brand loyalty and creating an instant connection with the product inside.

Here we cast our eyes over some of worlds 2011's best and brightest food packaging, from ergonomic designs to effective rebranding campaigns. In an increasingly sophisticated field, these projects have separated themselves from the pack.

Nestlé - designed for all ages To ensure all their customers can handle and open food products without difficulty, Swiss food giant Nestlé

Food Packaing

recently adopted the method of 'inclusive design', a concept where gaining consumer insight is the first step.

The company therefore launched a research study Down Under, to determine how people with limited hand movement can use and open their product packaging in cooperation with Arthritis Australia.

Putting the consumer at the centre of packaging development means creating products and packaging that are easy to use regardless of age, disability or physical condition is the main agenda of NestlĂŠ global.

As a result, the company redesigned its NescafĂŠ Gold jar in 2011 and for once the design team concentrated on consumers and not on packaging performance.The outcome was an easyto-hold jar, with a click-and-lock screw cap and a peelable foil membrane.

According to NestlĂŠ, the design was 46

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

'loved' by consumers of all ages and more products are to follow.

ICA - a personal approach to packaging When designing the packaging for the in-house brand of Swedish supermarket chain ICA, its designers decided to take a rather personal approach instead of creating a rational, anonymous and scientific design.

With copy written in a common, easy-tounderstand tone and with personalised characters, the team at King Design created something far from the complicated technical information and design usually seen on healthier products lines.

They wanted the product line to be real, more personal and foremost a real tasty choice hence they created a healthy, playful world with characters and situations all connecting to a 'healthy and good active life' without being too

rigorous, boring or 'healthy is tasteless.

The success proved them right: the products from the range Gott liv (Good life) are hugely popular among customers, meaning business and communication objectives have succeeded.

On top of that, the team won the Gold Design and Packaging Design award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2011.

Putting consumers at the centre of packaging development means creating products which are easy to use regardless of age.

Waitrose speciality pizza range capturing regional flavours London and San Francisco-based design agency Turner Duckworth has been designing packaging for upmarket UK supermarket Waitrose for 15 years.

The most eye-catching element of the design is a pizza slice-shaped window

Food Packaing

Moreover, the matt finished colours of the package stand in pointed contrast to the gloss areas that highlight logos and product information.

The pouch has been designed and printed at the same Clifton facility in the UK as the company promotes itself of being a full finishing agency. The pouch has also been shortlisted in the World Star Packaging Awards 2011 / 2012.

Amcor's aluminium innovations Aluminium cans and cups have formed a major part of the food packaging landscape for decades, but there is still room to refine the application of this material to make life easier for consumers.

In April 2011, Australia-based multinational packaging company Amcor launched a new range of aluminium bowls called Canny, incorporating the latest environmental and design advances in the area.

The wrinkle-free, thin wall canny range, which has a fully printable surface, has been designed to address the traditional 47

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

concerns about aluminium food packaging.

The bowls have an easy-to-peel membrane that does away with the inconvenience of can openers and leaves no sharp edges once opened, meaning it's suitable for consumers of all ages.

The bowls are also 30% lighter than standard ring-pull bowls and can stack compactly for more efficient transport, saving costs and emissions when it comes to distribution.

The Canny range is also free of bisphenol A (BPA), an organic compound that has been raising health concerns for the last few years.

The success of Nespresso with aluminium pods in the single portion coffee business shows us the ability of aluminium to combine an unbeatable product protection with a fantastic eyecatching effect, Ella's Kitchen - child-centred design In the crowded market of food packaging it is significant that a product appeals to its target consumer in both a

visual and functional way, particularly for specialised products such as children's food.

UK-based food company Ella's Kitchen has made this its credo since its beginnings in the early 2000s. The company's founder Paul Lindley believes the packaging has proved crucial to the brand's success.

The recyclable and chemical-free pouches and cardboard packages feature a simple design in vivid colours with childlike drawings and big, bright fonts, using names such as 'Yum Yummy Cookies' or 'Nibbly Fingers'.

The people at this company think it's important to always approach things from a child's point of view. So taking simple, natural ingredients that ooze goodness Ella's kitchen created baby foods and packaging that should really connect with kids - with flavours, colours, textures and even names that will appeal to all their senses.

For parents on the other hand, the package shows nutritional information in a clear format at the front of the

Food Packaing

that shows off the product itself. And their designs reflect their values.

Effective, with style. Sales with wit.

Originality, with relevance.

This happy marriage between designer and client bore fruit last year with the acclaimed packaging for the supermarket's new range of regional pizzas, based on some of Italy's boldest flavours.

The design of the pizza boxes combines evocative copy, still-life photography and an elegantly minimalist background design to emphasise the simplicity of the flavours and the quality of the ingredients.

The most eye-catching element of the design is a pizza slice-shaped window showing off the product itself. It's another example of the growing trend for packaging that creates a direct link between the customer and the product.

Turner Duckworth's classy work for Waitrose won its second place at the Dieline Awards 2011 and a Gold Award at the 2011 Pentawards.

Crabtree & Evelyn's traditional 48

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rebrand Rebranding a traditional product line, like Crabtree & Evelyn's luxury foods range, does not necessarily mean updating packaging with flashy new graphics.

C&E's old-fashioned aesthetic is key to its identity and important to its customers. So when Smith & Milton was contracted to create a new line of packaging for the company's teas, preserves and biscuits, the design agency looked to the company's past to find its future.

Smith & Milton explored C&E's archives to discover a host of picturesque, colourful illustrations. The agency repurposed these illustrations to decorate food products in a way that brings to mind the tranquillity of country life.

These designs were combined with premium biscuit tins, gift boxes and glass jars to flesh out the sense of understated luxury that is core to the Crabtree & Evelyn brand.

Smith & Milton delivered an inspired solution to a tight and challenging brief.

The design takes the richness of their heritage and plays it back in a delightful, quirky new wa.

This design of packaging was shortlisted for a Design Week award and a prize at the UK Packaging Awards 2011.

Ergonomic pouches Renshaw's Simply Melt Pouch scooped one of the silver awards in the food and beverage category in September 2011.

Described as an "eye-catching pouch" and a "cleverly designed pack" by the Star pack Award judges, Renshaw's Simply Melt Pouch scooped one of the silver awards in the food andbeverage category in September 2011, riding along on the current success wave of | pouches used in food applications.

Even though pouches have been in use for decades now, the judges praised Renshaw's pouch for its functionality and smart design.

Its creators, the designers at Clifton Packaging Group, claim the pouch has an ergonomic design that allows for safe handling when its contents have been heated.

Food Packaing package, combining necessary details with an eye-catching design.

TheIndian packaging development The Indian food processing industry is witnessing a multi-dimensional change in packaging mechanism. The dimensional change revolves around value (economic, nutritive) addition, s h e l f l i f e l o n g e v i t y, b e t t e r communication and customer / consumer convenience. India-based processors are investing intensively in state-of-art packaging infrastructure & technology. The recent technologies and improved packaging materials are gripping the organised sector of the Indian food processing sector. As a fact, the industry shelters under the unorganised segment, still as the unorganised sector will adopt automated processing facilities, sophistication in packaging will follow.

Currently majority of the organised food processing segment has established or is in the process of installing the “handsfree packaging” which is also synonymic as “aseptic packaging” among packers. Aseptic serves as the primary level of improved packaging in the food processing space which ensures cent percent safe & secure consumable products. Apart from primary level of improved packaging, the industry is also witnessing innovations at secondary level addressing more refined technology and machinery. Some of the recent trends under secondary level of improved packaging can cover – Perforated packaging Usage of perforated material for packaging of food products is the new buzz among the packers. The usage is preliminary for primary packaging which customer touches and feels while picking the product from retail shelves.

The usage is limited to organise and gourmet retailer's specific to high value perishable products like lettuce, strawberries, dwarf beans & niche bakery products like pies & pastries. The material facilitates the products to u n d e rg o a n a t u r a l r e s p i r a t i o n mechanism to secure the freshness & maintaining the equilibrium of nutritive contents. From the processor's point of 49

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view there are array of packaging material available in the market. The ranges varies from 1/4/8/32/160/360 hole per sq inch of packaging material depending on perish- ability and nature of product. More perishable products like vegetables go with less number of holes per sq inch while more number of holes per sq inch are opted for bakery products.

Killer paper The innovative killer paper technology can overcome food poisoning issues, specially in non-veg food products like chicken, fish & red meat. The packaging material works on the mechanism of innovative sensor packaging film which changes its colour from yellow to blue to indicate the spoilage of packaged content. Post-colour changing mechanism, the trend of “killer paper” is serving as recent movement in the industry. Killer paper, a material helps preserve foods by fighting the bacteria that cause spoilage. The paper contains a coating of silver nano particles, acting as powerful anti-bacterial agents. The commercial usage of killer paper for food product packaging is not feasible yet. Firms dealing with this technologies are working towards the costing part and may be minimising the nano shape of silver particles will be mid-way.

Odour-absorbent packaging

Adding to the freshness part of packaged food, odour-absorbent packaging is the current movement. The usage of flavour and odour absorber films is increasing among food packers. The usage of flavour and odour absorbers' films and sachets reduces the transfer of aroma or flavour between components of packaged food. The usage of the technology is not restricted to perishables but also expanding towards FMCG products.

Ripeness indicators The digital technology helps in monitoring the ripeness of fruits and other packaged food products. The packaging technology enables ripeness indicators which can monitor and communicate information about packaged food quality. The technology is still in testing stage and it's too early for Indian processors to witness the same.

To conclude, it can be stated that the industry is dynamic in nature and will keep experiencing innovations and technological inclinations. The level of adoption is impressive among processors but still the volumes are nascent in nature. The current phase of the industry can be bracketed as evolution phase, acceptance of consumers and adoption of processors is still a long way to go.

News Will India help the world banish the scourge of hunger?

T

by G. Chandrashekhar

he world is turning into a strange place of paradoxes. On the one hand, there are an estimated one billion (100 crore) people - representing 14 per cent of the global population of seven billion – undernourished, while on the other, millions suffer from chronic diseases due to excess food consumption.b On the one hand, is the issue of affordability and accessibility to food for the poor and on the other, humungous subsidies and wastages.

Global demand for farm products Global demand for agricultural products is growing and food prices are rising; and yet, roughly a third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. Food inflation hits the poor the hardest and dilutes their already low level of nutritional intake. For most of 2011, global food prices and food price volatility remained high.

Droughts, floods and earthquake threatened food security for the poor and increased hunger and malnutrition in the areas hit by these natural disasters. Yet, 2011 saw significant gains in support of agriculture, food and nutrition security, and global poverty reduction. Agriculture moved to the forefront of the international development agenda, and investments in the sector rose. Emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India as well as private sector and philanthropic organisations also increased their voice in the global food system through global platform such as the G20 meetings and the World Economic Forum. According to International Food Policy Research Institute, looming large for 2012 will be continued high and volatile food prices, increased oil prices, threat of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change (such as drought in Sahel) and financial crisis in the US and Europe.

These will combine to affect the food and nutrition security of the poor and hungry.

Concrete actions that will help improve food policy decisions and actions in 2012 and beyond include: forging a broad intersectoral coalition to address issues relating to agriculture, food, nutrition and health via G8 and G20 meetings; enhancing the key role of agriculture in economic, social and environmental sustainability via Rio+20; ensuring that water, land and energy are used efficiently in food production and that poor people have access to them; and creating and strengthening institutions and capacities for

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country-led development strategies. That said, newer challenges are coming to the fore. Land constraints (especially in Asia), water shortage and climate change are new threats that countries have to face.

Climate changes Climate change threatens more frequent drought, flooding and pest outbreaks. It is estimated that the world loses about 12 million hectares of agricultural land each year to land degradation. Experts point out that land clearing and inefficient practices make agriculture the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution on the planet, contributing to further climate change.

A set of recommendations intended for the consideration of policymakers on how to achieve food security in the face of climate change, population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems has been released by scientific leaders from 13 countries. To understand the path forward, major components and drivers of the global food system were reviewed. These include role of changing diet patterns; link between poverty, natural resource degradation and low crop yields; need to address inefficiencies in the food supply chain; gaps in agricultural investment, and the patterns of globalised food trade, food production subsidies and food price volatility.

Need to integrate food security Calling for a multi-pronged approach, the scientific leaders asserted the need to integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies; significantly raise the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade; sustainably intensify agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impact of agriculture; target populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity; reshape food access and consumption patterns to ensure basic nutritional needs are met and to foster healthy and sustainable eating habits worldwide; reduce loss and wastage in food systems particularly from infrastructure, farming practices, processing, distribution and household habits; and create comprehensive, shared, integrated information systems that encompass human and ecological dimensions. Experts are unanimous in their view that the

June 2012

multiple emergent challenges – food security, climate change, increased competition for energy, water, degradation of land and biodiversity – are connected in complex ways and demand an integrated management approach. They recognise that the efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and food system, and empowering the world's most vulnerable populations. Notwithstanding the above, one set of researchers point out that countries continue to rely on market-based solutions to food and resource shortage, rather than the more controversial needbased reallocation of resources. At the same time, domestic food production continues to have a lower priority in funding projects than connecting producers to export markets. Food price speculation has drawn the ire of researchers. Private investors can bet or speculate on what the price of a food commodity will be in the coming weeks or months.

It has been shown that food commodity prices are directly correlated with the number of futures contracts, or the contracts that investors sign when they bet on prices; and both spiked in 2007-2008.

Commodity speculation To address the issue of commodity speculation, in July 2010, the US passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which has called for maximum limits on the investment of a single speculator as well as improved transparency in all speculation. However, implementation of the law has been slow and uneven, with many legal challenges delaying its having a real effect on speculation.

Ironically, while the developed world is keenly discussing agriculture and related issues, and attempting to bring about a sense of balance in the global food market especially in consumption, there is a lot India can do to contribute to striking that balance. India is home to a very number of the world's poor and hungry.

Farm growth rates are abysmally low. There is an urgent need for resurgence in agriculture. Our success in banishing poverty and hunger through growthoriented policies and good governance can substantially reduce the stress the global food market is currently facing.

Fruit & Vegetable

Eat Your

Fruits and Vegetables They're Essential to a Healthy Diet

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ast month the United States Department of Agriculture released its Pesticide Data Program Annual Summary which reports pesticide residues on fruits, vegetables and other foods commonly consumed in the United States. This was the 20th time this report has been published and it, in part, represents the transparency the USDA has with respect to food safety. The report provides detailed information on the types and amounts of pesticide residues found on foods sold in the U.S. marketplace.

Consistent with previous years, when found, the levels of pesticide reported are extremely low among three government agencies -- USDA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - all of whom advise consumers that the regular consumption of fruits and vegetables containing the amounts of pesticide residues reported is not thought to represent any safety risks.

This USDA report and the accompanying press release received scant media attention. Typically, stories with good news about the safety of our food supply get minimal coverage.

Regrettably, there is a high probability that this pesticide residue report will be misrepresented by some, and consumers will be advised to shy away from certain fruits and vegetables due to allegations about "high" levels of pesticide residues.

Unfortunately, this type of advice has garnered much media attention in the past.

Recent consumer research shows that 51

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warnings about the alleged dangers of pesticides may result in reductions in the overall intake of fruits and vegetables.

While some could argue that providing information to consumers about pesticide residues simply fuels an increased shift from the consumption of conventionally grown crops to those grown organically, this ignores the issue that organically grown crops are typically more expensive, and higher produce costs could present a significant challenge to many in our society. While such a challenge might be reasonable if there were well documented scientific data that supported the contention that there are different health benefits of conventionally grown versus organically grown foods, at present this is not the case.

What people should be doing is eating more fruits and vegetables of all kinds -whether they are conventional or organic. Sadly, statistics show this is just not happening. Rather, research shows that consumers are eating fewer fruits and vegetables and only a small fraction of the population is meeting USDA dietary guidelines to make half of what we eat fruits and vegetables.

Admittedly, there are many reasons for this including cost, availability and the fact that some people just don't like them. But one thing is certain: Fear should not be a reason to avoid these healthy products.

Each time a new report is issued or emerging science appears claiming that pesticide on foods are linked to a specific health issue, media coverage is

abundant.

While we clearly need studies that are aimed at improving our knowledge of the potential health benefits and risks of the produce we consume, what often gets left out of the media coverage is that the findings are often preliminary in nature. And they may even conflict with other studies reporting increased fruit and vegetable consumption results in lower rates of these same maladies. At present, the simple fact remains that thousands of research projects conducted over several decades suggest that the healthiest people are those who consume plant food rich diets. Ideally, this is what the media should be reporting. Of course consumers have the clear right to know about what goes into their food. But the media and health educators have a responsibility to provide people with the full story on complex food safety topics.

I urge consumers and the media to seek out information from universities, public health agencies and other independent resources whenever there is a new report on food safety. It's crucial that all of us do whatever we can to help people understand how important it is that they consume diets rich in fruits and vegetables, and that such diets are not avoided due to inappropriate concerns over their safety.

Dr. Carl L. Keen is the Mars Chair in Developmental Nutrition, Professor of Nutrition & Internal Medicine, and a Nutritionist in the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of California at Davis.

News

“Awadhi Food Festival”

at Marine Plaza of spices so as to make them highly appealing to the diners' taste buds.

“Dastarkhan”, the ceremonial tradition of laying food on the table and serving the guests is a celebrated tradition of Awadhi Cuisine.

So if you are looking at pampering your taste buds drop by at Bayview, Marine Plaza and dig into some exotic Awadhi Cuisine!

For further details, Contact: Vidhi Shah/ Nishant Chawla/ Vaibhav Thakar Mob: 9820699237/ 9821555668.

022 – 66912814/ 15/ 16

Tel:

Fax: 022-66924457 Email: viveckshettyy1@gmail.com,

C

elebrate the distinctive “Awadhi food festival” starting from 1st June to 10th June at Bayview Restaurant at Marine Plaza Hotel, 29, Next To Air India Building, Opposite CCI Club, New Marine Lines, Mumbai – 20. As our esteemed guest, experience the rich & zealously guarded Nawabi cuisine by Chef Rehman from Lucknow.

An array of gourmet delicacies featuring world famous kebabs (Galawati, Kakori, Murg Tikka Mirza Hasnu, Mahi Dum kebab etc), Curries (Bong Zafrani N e h a r i , A h a m r i M u rg , P a n e e r Khushrang), Kormas (Murg Awadhi Korma, Asifi Gosht Korma, Nafees Samak Korma etc), Biryanis (Gosht Pulao, Khaas Murg Biryani, Korma Dum Biryani, Malihabadi Taheri Pulao, Nanratan Biryani) and unprecedented range of authentic Nawabi breads like Fitri Naan, Naan E Tanak, Sheermal,

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Kishmishi Paratha, Wah Wah Roti, Gilafi Kulcha, Baqurkhani, Taftan and Khameeri Roti etc. and much more will be served on your plate.

The Bayview at Hotel Marine Plaza brings to its patrons the “Nafaasat” and “Nazakat” of the Nawabi Cuisine.

Awadhi Cuisine has its origin in the city of Awadh (now Lucknow). Awadh, the long forgotten kingdom, whose memories now exist in books, has always been famous for its fabulous cuisine. Tempered by the Mughals, Sculpted by the brijwasi's and crafted by the Nawab's the Royal spirit is piquantly palpable in the archetypal dishes from the Awadh.

The most outstanding feature of The Awadhi dishes are fairly elaborate, taking rather long time to cook. A highly appetizing aroma emanates when the lids of the degs are finally opened. The meats are treated with an unending array

induscommunication007@gmail.com induscommunications007@gmail.com Website: www.induscommunications.com

Case Study

Knorr and aku.automation achieve 100% inspection rates of food packages with In-Sight acceptable error rate of zero to maintain the highest quality. Since normal wear and tear of production machines make it impossible to make defect-free products forever, faulty items can only be excluded by checking each final product. Until recently, Knorr tried to accomplish this by assigning staff to visually examine filled trays for a few seconds and look for broken seals at the end of the production line. Although this worked well and customers had not been submitting claims for product defects, Knorr wanted Cognex's smart vision system to ensure they would meet their goal of zero defects.

T

he Knorr sachet packaging plant in Heilbronn, Germany packages millions of products annually such as Fix Spaghetti Bolognese, Fix Goulash and Fix Pot Roast. The plant makes ongoing improvements to its production machinery in order to meet the latest technical and food hygiene requirements.

Knorr's TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) efforts have allowed them not just maintain their performance levels but a keep increasing them over the years. The latest step in these improvements was the installation of an intelligent machine vision system from Cognex to deliver checks of 100% of the seals on sachets produced. The vision system that Knorr deployed consisted of an InSight速 Micro vision system, In-Sight Explorer vision software with PatMax速 pattern recognition technology and a Cognex VisionView 700 visualization panel. The system was installed by aku.automation GmbH of Aalen, Germany.

The goal of 100% quality Sporadic production errors can occur in the filling or final sealing stages of high-speed sachet production operations. However, Knorr has set an 53

Skepticism Gives Way to Enthusiasm There was skepticism from the staff initially as to whether the automatic optical product inspection would be able to keep up when integrated into the process, but this very quickly turned into enthusiasm. The In-Sight vision system from Cognex was able to assess the quality of the sealed seams at breakneck speeds. In the camera's black-and-white mode, the fine relief of the welded seams shows well with contrast between light and dark. Any material overlaps or defective welds are detected immediately and the product is discharged.

Another important quality parameter is the angle the welded seam makes with the outer edge of the bag. Using PatMax pattern recognition technology, the InSight Micro works out the observed values, checks them against the tolerance values using an internal processor and if there is an overshoot or undershoot, it sends a not-in-order signal to the PLC, which removes that

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

product from the process.

By cropping the pictures to only the image areas that are relevant for quality checking, the imaging experts aku.automation have managed to increase the evaluation rate to 840 frames per minute. This still leaves the vision system with sufficient capacity and the verification is reliable.

Quality, not Quantity The In-Sight Micro gives Knorr and aku.automation a complete image processing system that they can rely on, all in a compact package of just 30mm x 30mm x 60mm (1.2" x 1.2" x 2.4"). Due to its small dimensions, the In-Sight Micro has an extremely wide range of fitting options so that it can be used anywhere in the production line, even in tight spaces on robots and very inaccessible places. Thanks to the VisionViewuser interface display, monitoring the manufacturing and inspection process is very simple. The powerful and cost-effective user interface provides password-protected user controls for setting vision tool parameters and targets regions on the factory work floor without needing a PC. This means that the employees in charge at Knorr can independently configure the system after just a short learning curve, regulating it and intervening in the event of abnormalities in the production and inspection process.

For further information, please contact: Sunil Vaggu Cognex Sensors India Pvt. Ltd vaggu.sunil@cognex.com 9881466003

Gluten Free

Gluten Free Friend or Fad?

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h i s n ew d i eta r y awareness leaves a large opportunity in the marketplace as a gluten-free diet has quickly become a fast-growing nutritional movement.

The urban Indiancustomers'have become quite aware of a lot of health issues and the entire latest trend in health

F

or many consumers, gluten free foods are a welcome friend.

Nearly one out of every 100 people has Celiac Disease or what is known as gluten sensitivity. This is not a completely new disease; Celiac disease started to get diagnosed as early as the 1940s.

Nearly 21 million people have Celiac disease or some form of sensitivity to gluten, a protein found in all foods and products containing wheat, barley and rye according to National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. In addition to the 1% of the population with Celiac

Disease, 6% of Americans have some form of gluten sensitivity while another 5-8% of consumers are looking for gluten free products for various reasons.

This new dietary awareness leaves a large opportunity in the marketplace as a gluten-free diet has quickly become one of the fastest growing nutritional movements globally. Some food retailers are seeing green envisioning the money they can make from this fad.

For others, this new word is reminiscent of fads, like the Atkins diet, they have seen come and go.

WHAT IS CELIAC DISEASE?

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Gluten Free cereal, and at the same price. * Betty Crocker was the first brand to launch gluten-free brownie, cookie, and cake mixes in traditional grocery stores.

This innovative line of products satisfied gluten-free consumers' previously unmet desire to find great tasting, affordable and easy-to-prepare desserts.

According to CeliacCentral.org, Celiac Disease is a genetic disorder or autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the tissue of the body. It is triggered by consuming gluten which interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food by damaging a part of the small intestine called villi. When nutrients do not get absorbed into our bloodstream it can lead to a host of problems including malnourishment, cancer, osteoporosis, Type 1 diabetes, infertility and the onset of other autoimmune diseases.

This disease can be triggered by stressful, physical and/or emotional events in a person's life such as surgery, child birth or divorce. There are nearly 300 symptoms associated with the disease although the most common are gastrointestinal such as: abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, gas and non-intestinal such as: anaemia, itchy skin rash, migraine headaches and bone/joint pain to name a few.

Other groups of people affected by gluten include children with autism spectrum disorder or with ADHD, patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders like irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn's Disease, individuals following an anti-inflammatory diet 55

Oil & Food Journal June 2012

and still others who simply perceive that gluten-free food is somehow healthier GLUTEN FREE PRODUCTS ON STORE SHELVES Many food manufactures have realized that gluten-free is not a fad but rather a lifestyle.

Consumers are not necessarily looking for new brands but rather want to continue eating brands they know and grew up with. Some of the more progressive companies are recapturing this brand loyal customer that they have invested in for decades. * Brands such as Kellogg's, General Mills, Frito Lay and Snyder's of Hanover are capitalizing on this market by reformulating or relabeling in some cases their existing brands. * Kellogg's Gluten Free Rice Krispies cereal is made with whole-grain brown rice and eliminates barley malt (the source of gluten in the original Rice Krispies cereal). The gluten-free option is produced in a separate facility, and each batch is tested to ensure its glutenfree status. Gluten Free Rice Krispies cereal is in the cereal aisle, right alongside the original Rice Krispies

* Frito-Lay has re-labelled several of their products "gluten free" starting in 2011. "Since many of our chips are made from simple ingredients like corn or potatoes, they have naturally always been made without gluten. However, consumers with Celiac disease have told us it is more helpful when they shop to have the words 'gluten free' included on the packaging. So to help meet their needs, Frito-Lay is now validating with analytical testing that these products contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten then adding the 'gluten free' claim to our bags" according to FritoLay.com. * Snyder's of Hanover has been working with the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO), a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG), since September 2009.

As of today, they are happy to announce that their Gluten Free Pretzel Sticks are GFCO certified.

CERTIFICATION Branded food companies who want to reformulate their products to become gluten-free must follow some basic rules; getting certified is key word. A new science-based gluten-free certification program is now available from organic certifier Quality Assurance International and their national health care unit.

QAI, with its parent company NSF International, an independent public health and safety organization, brings more than 66 years of food safety auditing and certification, and 20 years of organic certification experience, to this new consumer label. NFCA, a recognized healthcare leader in the

Gluten Free gluten-free industry, is dedicated to achieving greater accessibility of gluten-free foods and health and food safety solutions for celiac and glutenintolerant consumers.

The certification program requires: * Sensitive testing procedures * Stringent auditing * An Independent application review process * The use of feedback from consumers, manufacturers and retailers * A product review * Onsite inspection * Testing to ensure compliance to 10 ppm or less * Random product testing THE COST OF GOING GLUTENFREE Consumers are more likely to purchase products with the label on the front of the package compared to the back, and when consumers are presented with two products with identical ingredients they usually purchase the product labelled 'gluten free.'"

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association), to alter an existing product, companies can use rice, corn, soy, potato, buckwheat, quinoa, millet, or nut flours; however, changing the grains can make the products texture and overall taste change significantly.

Many manufacturers question the economic feasibility of going gluten free. And according to many researchers the biggest investment is the time required to source ingredients and appropriate equipment.

Manufacturers could outsource and utilize co-packers with dedicated gluten free rooms and equipment or Gluten Free Manufacturing facilities.

Another investment is employee training and education. Using testing from an independent lab will also align a company with the new FDA labeling rules.

Food companies developing products for this market need to consider the FDA's labeling restrictions. The FDA document should include a definition of gluten-free, synonyms that may be used 56

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for gluten-free label claims, and an overall threshold value of gluten ppm (parts per million) that can be in a food and still be billed as gluten-free.

Lizbeth Lane Gourmet Cuisine of international fame has seen advantage in the market place when they created their sauces that just so happened to be gluten free. Co-owner Rid Francisco explained that they have the second marketing position withsauces (all natural). This company had already realized that it's (gluten-free) a huge market and growing rapidly. Although, there is still a curse associated with gluten free food many people think of them as dull and flavourless but that is what gives us the edge with our sauces because our flavor is not compromised a bit.

The gluten-free category has defied the recession by continuing to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 30% from 2006-2010 according to Packaged Facts firm. This firm expects the gluten free market to exceed $5 billion by 2015. Now retailers must understand this market and cater to these consumers if they want to cash in on this trend.

RETAILERS CASHING IN Many progressive retailers are already

seeing results with their gluten free nutritional programs. Three years in the making, Safeway recently instituted a program called SimpleNutrition after surveying their customers who wanted to make more informed food choices.

They use green tags throughout the store highlighting up to two key nutrient and ingredient benefits such as "organic", "low sodium" or "glutenfree".

Other retailers like Whole Foods only work with vendors who are certified gluten-free by one of the independent third party agencies or allergen control programs which use a 20 parts per million threshold which is the standard proposed by the FDA. Whole Foods offers gluten-free shopping list for customers with these special dietary needs.

Wegman's is another supermarket offering consumers with dietary restrictions a place to go and find variety and guidance in their choices.

The retailer dedicates aisles for glutenfree under its Nature's Market Place department. A Wellness Key Program throughout the store indicates, with a brightly colored dot, whether or not a product is gluten free, lactose free, fat free as or helps with any other dietary restrictions.

Wegman's is taking

Gluten Free proactive steps with 6 Registered Dieticians on staff, a Fresh News email newsletter that is distributed weekly with new products, recipes and nutritional education, an educational video on their Gluten Free page of the website and they offer lists of products and recipes that are gluten free in their stores.

With a variety of retailers dedicating shelf space to this fad market, researchers from Packaged Facts expect to see a much wider range of gluten-free products on shelves by 2012Sequestering product, testing, taste and texture challenges are among the many factors that interested companies must consider before

entering the gluten-free category.

Food companies have undergone an education about what it takes to produce gluten-free food items. Though a lot goes on behind the scenes. For example, equipment and manufacturing steps are different.

Market research analysts agree the gluten-free category continues to garner interest from food manufacturers, retailers and consumers. But there is debate about whether interest and demand are sustainable enough to be worth the time and resources food companies will potentially spend working through the challenges posed by gluten-free food manufacturing.

A different point of view on the glutenfree phenomenon is that the dabblers will drop out of the lifestyle, but companies will continue to make innovations in gluten-free food manufacturing and improve product quality to generate crossover appeal.

Gluten free diet is not a fad rather there is a core of consumers who need these products. The growing selection of gluten-free foods is not like the lowcarb craze was. The trend is helping to raise the bar on product quality and nutrition for consumers with Celiac disease and other gluten sensitivities, and it will be a healthier category overall.

INDIAN SITUATION In India, it has been taken for granted that coeliac disease and the sensitivity to gluten is minimal. Only recently has there been some formal reported study of the incidence of coeliac disease in the Indian population.

A group of researchers led by Govind Makharia et al at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi reported the results of one such study in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Haematology.

According to their results, coeliac disease in this north Indian community is 1 in 96, or about 1%. That means that coeliac disease may be more common than is recognised in India, and those rates may be about the same as in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In India, popular menu items like bread, cookies, cakes, naan, chappati and puri contain gluten. Another option is to look at Indian menu items which are gluten-free - e.g. dosa which is based on rice flour and promote it to a Western audience as a gluten-free product.

Since gluten is the predominant wheat protein, the major component of the gluten-free market is the baked goods sector. To determine which products may be classified as "gluten- free" the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) proposed as early as 2007 that to be classified as gluten-free, baked products should have 20 ppm or less of gluten in the final baked goods.

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Event Report MPOC and MPOB Jointly Organize

Malaysia-India Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar (POTS) 2012

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umbai, 7 June 2012 – The Honourable Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, Malaysian Plantation Industries & Commodities Minister officiates the third MalaysiaIndia Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar (POTS) at ITC Maratha Hotel Mumbai today and witnesses the signing of a Buyer Credit (Trade) Agreement between EXIM Bank, Malaysia and ICICI and YES Bank India.

The theme of the event is “Managing Global Challenges through Innovative Partnerships”, and is focusing on bringing together various stakeholders in the palm oil industry to meet and explore future trade and business linkages while synergizing and

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strengthening the existing partnerships.

Speakers at the seminar are prominent local industry captains and international experts from Malaysia, the USA, the UK, and India. The papers cover topics on oils and fats ranging from market outlooks to trade policies.

This event also provides an avenue for the products and services exhibits as well as a platform for the exchange of information and opportunities for further networking among the members of the industries.

In his speech during the launch of the seminar, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok acknowledged the importance of India as Malaysia's trading partner both in the trade of palm oil and other goods. The palm oil trade between Malaysia and

India has been built on a mutually beneficial basis and through event such as POTS, new trade and business linkages could be explored further.

Tan Sri Bernard Dompok encourages Malaysian companies to collaborate with local Indian companies to develop other areas particularly higher valueadded palm derivatives, such as oleochemicals, pharmaceuticals, processed foods, speciality products and consumer brands. These efforts will definitely spur the growth of the India oils and fats industries and enhance trade between the two countries.

India's oils and fats market has grown significantly from 11.7 million tonnes in 2000 to 18 million tonnes in 2011 and palm oil accounted for almost 6.78 million tonnes or 40% of this total. India is currently among the top five destinations of Malaysian palm oil exports with import volume of more than 1.5 million tonnes in 2011.

Malaysia-India POTS is the 24th of its series since its introduction in 2006. This event is organized jointly by Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and supported by the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), Central Organization for Oil Industry and Trade (COOIT), The Indian Vanaspati Producers Association (IVPA) and The Vanaspati Manufacturer's Association of India (VMA).