And Other Good Better and Fun Foods
You have already been mangled (mentally!) By the juggernaut, led by the noodles brigade. You are tired of thinking about the amazing range you can pick from. The multigrain/rice/atta variants of a cult brand, to soupy noodles that can be first drunk and then eaten, or vice versa. But you just have to know more before you make your choice.why? Find out.
According to a recent Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market report, Forty five per cent of all Indian households consume instant noodles. Still they arent considered healthy, right? Most mothers feel guilty of rustling up instant noodles because flour is not wholesome. As a result, noodles of great many varieties have been created and served in Indian households. From being garnished with onion and chilli to fortifying them with vegetables and eggs the flavours and nutritional value of these tasty tangles have consciously and creatively been enhanced in the hope of making it healthier.
Who better than Khaskar (name changed for obvious reasons) to tell you all about it! Yes, Khaskar of Doodles, the healthy noodles fame guy. He wasn't allowed to eat noodles (read Saggi!) all his adolescent life his mother, teacher and every other possible authoritarian personality in his life told him how unhealthy and impermissible noodles are. So one fine morning, he woke up in a determined state of mind to invent noodles that he could eat without worrying about the non-nutrition that they contain. And that is how Foodles hit the market from the Consumer Healthcare unit of a global multi billion dollar company. The focus for the brand is to change the centre of gravity from convenience to health. And what's the innovation? Vitamin-fortified and four-grained noodles!
But if Khaskar hasn't been able to encourage you to eat oodles of Doodles, we are sure mummy Kajol and her soupy noodles saga would! Bollywood star begins a twisty binge tale here while endorsing brands, soupy, healthy alternative that you can either kha ke piyo, ya pee ke khao (eat and then drink, or..) So what's the logic behind this product? Simple, while instant noodles may be unhealthy, soup is seen as a healthy option in India. But of course, there is an innovation / differentiation angle: Taking cue from its Noodle Soup, the company is aiming to ride the noodle-eating habit to popularise its soups that were otherwise bought largely in winter.
In its aggression, it even replaced soups with instant noodles for the same positioning as a mid-evening meal for kids.
Healthy Junk Food: An Oxymoron? 
Ok, so seriously, we have heard and talked enough about the health food fad, haven't we? We all know that the food industry is undergoing a transition. Maggi has a new tagline -Taste bhi, health bhi (taste as well as health!). Good old wheat flour has gone multi-grain, mainstream bread producers such as Harvest are riding on the brown bread wave and FMCG giants such as Horlicks have gone all out in the market with health treats like the granola bars.
What On Earth Is A Snackified Beverage?
Recently, introduced in international markets, Tropolis not yet available in India is the latest portable kids snack with mom appeal. Pepsico is touting this smooth blend of real squeezable fruit, as an innovative new food line to help moms squeeze the goodness of fruit into kids daily diets by making fruit fun. But its launch has kick-started a heated argument between nutritionists and food experts. Can a thickened, non-carbonated soft drink ever replace real food? On the flip side, isn't this same thickened puree better than no fruit at all? As the debate continues, we need to get to the most interesting part.
PepsiCo calls Tropolis a snackified beverage. Dr Mehmood Khan, a former Mayo Clinic endocrinologist who heads PepsiCos Global Nutrition Group, stated in a Wall Street Journal interview how, It's outdated to think that snacks are dry and beverages are wet. Did you just say bizarre? Well, this is just the beginning folks!
A Drinkified Snack: Nutritious Convenience Food?
According to Dr Khan, Consumers don't wake up in the morning and say, I'm going to have a whole grain; I want a dairy product. He adds, They're looking for combinations of those things. So what that basically means is that after the snackified beverage, we need to be prepared for more weird combinations. So what's next?
The New Food Pyramid: Good For You, Better For You And Fun For You Foods
Tropolis is part of PepsiCos Good for You line. This is the very top of their personal food pyramid; followed by products they designate Better for You, such as Baked Lays Chips and Diet Pepsi. These non-foods are better than what? The foundation of their business, of course, which consists of items they refer to as Fun for You, and include Doritos, Mountain Dew, and Pepsi Cola. Just as energy positively spins calories,
Fun does sound a whole lot better than may cause diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. But, hey,make your choice...Economics of the indian functional foods market
Exceptional growth in the Indian economy and an increasing awareness of healthy functional ingredients is driving the Indian functional foods and beverages market, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan.
Two Angles:
1. A strong desire among Indian consumers to maintain a healthy lifestyle is an additional factor driving this market, according to the analysts, who found that the market earned revenues of over US$185m in 2007 and estimates this to reach US$1,161m in 2012.
2. Even in the remotest of villages, where bottled water is a scarcity, chips and instant noodles are readily available.
Survival in the functional foods business requires cutting-edge R&D and high technical expertise.
Sow what you eat
Agriculture is no longer about reap what you sow
Agro-produce angle:
Believe it or not but the growing market for instant food is dictating what will be grown. And moving in the direction of making this business dream a reality is the head of a gigantic food and beverages corporation, who is known for her out-of-the box ideas. She has even shared her vision to transform the company from a traditional food-drink supplier to a wellness-solution provider. She is determined to market affordable, wholesome food and beverages to consumers all over the world while simultaneously encouraging economic and environmental sustainability.
And that's why she is shifting the company's business model by flipping the ratio between fun-for-you products and good-for-you products.
Specifically, she wants to increase good-for-you revenues to US $30 billion by 2020, up from US $10 billion today.
No wonder budding markets that aren't too big on packaged food are being used to pilot this new business model. She believes that such markets are full of consumers who will take to wellness products much faster than consumers in the US or Europe. Undoubtedly, India with its population and other problems is not only an inspiration for these wholesome dream but the base station for testing the company's new aspiration of rendering greater value to consumers, using lesser resources.
Interestingly, this global company has a dynamic partnering network through it's India unit, which consists of local R&D laboratories, government bodies, non-governmental organisations, and universities to help identify growing market requirements and to give sustainable solutions that bring benefits to all stakeholders.
There are other stories such as this, too.
In 2006, for instance, a massive multinational company and the Punjab Agricultural University co-developed a tractor-driven machine that enabled direct seeding of rice (DSR) an eco-friendly technique that eliminates holding water for rice cultivation, reducing water use by 30 percent and cutting carbon emissions by 70 percent. After piloting DSR successfully in a few Indian states over the last three years, the corporation has partnered with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute to install this water-efficient rice farming technique nationwide. The company even plans to export DSR to other markets facing growing water scarcity. This is not all! In April, the global giant forged an alliance with one of India's largest industrial conglomerate to co-develop a range of HEALTHY food and beverage products.
We need to know how healthy is this stuff? And how much wealth are they generating for their makers?
