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Innovations and opportunities for RTE food market
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Monday, 16 July, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Mamta Thakur
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The land of India is rich in the diverse traditions, culture, food habits, lifestyles, and tastes which have drastically altered from the past two decades. Nowadays, the consumers’ demand is varying tremendously and being highly diversified as influenced by few factors such as liberalisation, nuclear families, increase in disposed incomes, media proliferation, busy lifestyle, innovation in kitchen appliances and so on.
Therefore, the consumers are these days looking for new ways to reduce their time in the kitchen, as cooking seems to be more important thing to do.
Animal or plant sources
Thus, in today’s world ready-to-eat (RTE) food products are becoming an essential component in the daily lives of people. RTE food refers to the food derived from either animal or plant sources that has been washed, cooked, frozen and processed so that it can be eaten directly after heating thus saving the consumers’ time and energy. Now people prefer nutritional small quantity of RTE food rather than traditional large meals due to their busy lifestyle. This extremely changing food habits and greater demand for RTE food products have led to the growth of processed and packed food manufacturing industries.
In order to meet the increasing demands of younger consumers of India, several new regional companies have also entered this field. Hygienic preparation, convenient packing system, details mentioning ingredients used in labelling, packing and expirations dates are some of the factors that meet the consumers’ taste and have greatly gained the consumers acceptance to purchase the RTE food products.
In India, the major consumers of RTE food products are the nuclear families and bachelors residing in the metros for study or employment purpose. Moreover, the number of working women is increasing thus driving the demand for RTE food products. Growth in retail chains and outlets is also adding to the product awareness among consumers in the country.
Supermarkets, convenience stores and hypermarkets are emerging as the key points-of-sale offering a wide range of RTE food products manufactured by leading companies such as ITC, Kitchens of India, Kohinoor, Ethnic Kitchens, Haldiram’s, McCain, Veekay Impex.com, Satnam Overseas Ltd, MTR, Amul, Gits, Ashoka Ready to Eat, Priya Foods, Rajbhog Foods Inc., Rainbow Foods India, Shana, Tasty Bite, and Vimal Agro Products.
Market Scenario As per the report of “India Ready-to-Eat Food Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2019,” a growth of 21.99% is expected for the Indian RTE food market during 2014-19, in value terms.
The main driving force to raise RTE food products demand in the country include the increasing workforce, improving consumer lifestyle, and expanding retail formats. Northern and western regions of the country are the key revenue contributors in the RTE food market, with major demand emanating from cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
On the basis of segment, the shelf-stable RTE food demand exceeds as compared to the frozen RTE food in the country due to the requirement of proper refrigeration for frozen RTE food to maintain their shelf life. However, high price of RTE food products is a major factor posing threat as Indian consumers are innately price-conscious and their preferences generally change with even slightest change in price.
On the basis of processing, the RTE food market can be segmented into canned, frozen, chilled and other RTE food. Here, the frozen segment holds the highest share in the process type category. By the product type, the market can be segmented into meat, vegetable, cereals and others food products where meat/poultry segment is projected to account for the largest value share (48%) in 2016.
And according to the distribution channels, the market is segmented into hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores, departmental stores, specialty stores, and online purchases where hypermarket and supermarket segment accounted for the highest value share of 37% in 2016 and is expected to gain significant market share by the end of 2023.
Retail chains are the key contributors in increasing the awareness about the RTE products among consumers. The presence of retail players like Big Bazar and Easyday is also contributing towards increasing the demand for RTE food products in the country.
However, as of now, such chains are not vastly present in the semi-urban and rural areas of India. Nevertheless, expansion plans of major retailers across rural and semi-urban areas in coming years is expected to increase consumer awareness and availability of RTE products in coming years, thereby driving the country’s RTE food market.
Recent Innovations in RTE
The food processing sector utilises the numerous traditional technologies like fermentation, encapsulation, extraction, fat replacement, and enzyme technology to develop the novel healthy RTE food. The food industry focus on the production of novel healthy food additives, reduction or elimination of undesirable food ingredients, alteration of food compositions, and mask undesirable flavours or stabilise the ingredients.
The recent biotechnology techniques have further revolutionised the way foods are created. The current innovations in gene science have potential in manipulating the food components of natural foods. In combination with bio-fermentation, desirable natural compounds can now be produced in large amounts at a low cost and with little environmental impact.
Nanotechnology is also beginning to find potential applications in the area of food and agriculture. Although the use of new technologies in the production of ready-to-eat foods is often a cause for concern, the possibility that innovative food technology will allow us to produce a wide variety of food with enhanced flavour and texture, while at the same time conferring multiple health benefits on the consumer, is very exciting.
Scientific evidence has prompted consumers to increasingly opt for low calorie and low fat ready-to-eat foods that hold out the promise of health benefits. Food processors are eagerly adding value to their products based on nutritional information to meet the current consumer demand for healthier food products. These added values include removing or reducing anti-nutritive components that are present naturally in the food matrix; reducing food components such as fat, caffeine or calories; adding bioactive ingredients that offer health benefits; and increasing the amount of essential nutrients present in food.
Sky is the limit for the development of novel food products for health benefits. The innovation process can work in either of two ways: from research to practice or from practice to research. Research in several key areas, including ingredient synergy, biological efficacy, and the safety aspects of the long-term consumption of ready-to-eat food produced using novel food technologies, will thus be needed as a consequence.
Market Opportunities
The improvement in consumer lifestyle, rapid urbanisation, high disposable income are increasing demand for on-the-go convenience foods, thereby fuelling the ready-to-eat food market growth. Innovative products in functional ingredients, convenience, and organic foods and advancement in areas of packaging technology are expected to provide a future growth opportunity in the sector.
Currently, North America holds the largest market share of ready-to-eat-food. The US is the largest market in North America due to technological innovations, busy lifestyles, and high disposable incomes. The European region also represents a large market for ready-to-eat food. The US and the EU, which are almost saturated markets. These regions have a large number of snack food manufacturing companies serving the limited population. The high growth opportunity in the developing regions of China and India is attracting the majority of the big players to this market. The booming food sector, multiple food outlets, the popularity of international brands and distinctive distribution channels adopted by players are expected to help the market grow at a continuous pace.
(The author is PhD research scholar, dept of food engg & tech, SLIET, Longowal, Punjab. She can be contacted at thakurmamtafoodtech@gmail.com; mamta.ft@gmail.com)
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