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IT cos offering solutions for RTE sector that help in adherence to laws
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Wednesday, 22 August, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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fiogf49gjkf0d Information Technology solutions’ companies like HCL Systems, Tectura and ITC Infotech have now set their sights on the ready-to-eat (RTE) food industry with some specialised offerings.
In an era of Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006, an IT-compliant environment in the RTE food industry enables effortless adherence to stringent and complex food safety standards. It is looking at these needs of the industry that the new offerings are being launched.
Further, the RTE foods market is a key segment of the Indian food processing sector and is expected to garner exponential growth with revenues to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore by 2015. The current size of the market is valued at Rs 3,000 crore.
“The demand for RTE foods has been in the increase during recent times and the growth can be attributed to the change in lifestyles, increasing disposable incomes, and diminishing culinary skills,” said Pala Bushanam Janardhan of HCL Technologies.
“To add to the inherent quality of RTE foods due to its technology, IT solutions can augment the value by rigorous process validation in operational plant floor, efficient control of product quality and compliance to regulatory requirements,” said Janardhan who was in Mysore recently for a Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) international symposium.
He added, “An integrated IT solution comprising traceability, compliance, internal operation tracking and recall management would be of immense help to RTE food manufacturers. An efficient IT solution would help ensure product quality, safety, reduction in recalls, decrease in cost and enhancement of overall operational efficiency.”
According to Ranjani C, food & beverage, CoE head, Tectura India, traceability is an increasingly common element of public and private systems for monitoring compliance with quality, environment, and other product and/or process attributes related to food. Small-scale farmers may lack the resources to comply with increasingly strict food safety standards, particularly traceability requirements. Given the role of traceability in protecting consumers, ensuring food safety, and managing reputational risks and liability, it is vital to integrate and empower small-scale agricultural producers in the food supply chain through IT systems.
“In the food and beverage industry, quality control for food safety begins the moment products or ingredients arrive at companies ‘receiving dock. It is important to not only have the quality control procedures well defined, but to have a system that helps take human error and chance out of the system. Tectura Food & Beverage Solution, powered by Microsoft Dynamics ERP, offers the food and beverage industry with quality control tools one would need to deliver high quality food and beverage products for today’s competitive marketplace,” she added.
ITC Infotech is also looking to expand its presence in the food, beverage and dairy space with its range of software solutions for the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) practice. The company focusses on trade marketing and distribution domain based on Oracle Siebel technology in the Consumer Goods vertical.
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