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Bakery market’s most affordable ready-to-eat food
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Friday, 26 March, 2021, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Saurabh Modi
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Bakery meals in India are gaining lots of popularity day by day. Bakery products are becoming available in all parts of the country, as well as remote areas also. Bakery items have more shelf life and most of the time it’s a meal which is able to satisfy the need of the belly. These bakery meals are available in single portion packing and for family, big packing sizes.
Bakery meals are always preferred as they are easy to handle while consuming it too, unlike traditional Indian food, like chapatti and sabji. This is one of the reasons that they are always a choice for those who are unable to move out due to some or the other reason. Also during the Covid era it has gained more popularity because bakery products are mostly not consumed at the last minute. Almost all the bakery products are made 6- 7 hours in advance. It’s always optional to reheat the bakery dishes as they can be microwave easily before consumption and they give a feel like freshly baked items. The shelf life is already high due to which they are preferred . Bakery meals also eliminate the hassles of the complicated kitchen aids, as everyone is not familiar with them.
Bakery meals have entered the market at a very rapid speed; the per capita income of the Indian consumers is increasing day by day, which allows for a bigger market for bakery meals. A large segment of consumers are those who are very price conscious too. Bakery meals have also different segments, some of the products are very low priced, which is accessible for all the lower class segments, some of the bakery meals are catering to the people of upper middle class and higher class.
It’s true that increasing use of adulteration in Indian sweets has diverted the consumers towards the bakery sweets. In today’s scenario we can see that any good sweet shop has either started with bakery sweets or changed the business from Indian sweets to the bakery desserts. There are tremendous changes in the employment opportunities and changing lifestyle.
India has a large number of young consumers who are the majority of work force employed in different companies, most of the families are nuclear family and they are mostly in double income groups. This makes them order bakery meals and take some time to spend together, not in cooking process. The popularity of bakery meals is further added with the increasing varieties of the products. Not only western but also Indian pallet is merged or fused in the bakery products. Like baked samosa, chicken tikka bread rolls etc. All these factors indicate the bright future of the bakery meals in India.
We can say that the bakery ready to eat food is made into different segments, like packaging, distribution channels and the type of product. Generally we find that in a developed country the consumption of food will increase with the population growth but in developing country like India the demand of food will increase with the increase in population and at the same time also by the increased income of the mass people.
India has a large base of young man force that is the primary consumers of these type of bakery meals. But it’s also true that the youngsters are very selective in having their food. Healthier options are always appreciated. Due to these preferences only, now days we can get variety of choices in breads for making sandwiches, even the cakes and other bakery products have healthy enzymes added to them.
A large group of Indian consumers are very much price conscious, this is always a challenge for the food manufacturers.
Not only in India but also we can see that globally the demands for the bakery meals is increasing because of the busier life style of consumers and also their increasing income levels.
Women are now engaged in most of the employment, it makes the women to prepare meals at home, so they have a better option to take ready to eat food , and bakery products always provide a variety of choices in this regards. Lots of crowd is migrating from class B city towards class A city, this changes the way of lifestyle and eating habits too.
Growth in the retail chain and QSR’s is continuously adding to the requirements of the bakery meals.
Ready-to-eat food must comply with all USDA guidelines related to processing, washing, drying, cooling, freezing, and packaging. In terms of value, the global ready-to-eat food products market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.2 per cent during the forecast period (2016–2026) and is estimated to be valued at US$ 195.3 billion by the end of 2026.
Examples of ready to eat food from the bakery markets:-
1. Different varieties of healthy breads
2. Different varieties of cakes
3. Baked samosa
4. Pizza rolls
5. Pan pizza
6. Chilli chicken puffs
7. Mushroom puffs
8. Chocolate Danish
9. Fruits Danish
10. Muffins
11. Varieties of pastries
12. Brownies
13. Stuffed croissant
So we can state that the bakery market is huge when we talk about ready to eat foods, it does not mean that live baking is not taking place . that is also having scope but the increased demand and shortage of time, busy lifestyle etc., all are responsible and also creating best of the market for the ready to eat food from the bakery market.
One aspect where the Indian manufacturers need to focus is the hygiene and sanitation point of production. The laws in India need to be more firm and stronger so that the consumers can get best of the products. The emerging trends and demands in Indian bakery market has given lots of scope to the producers and also the government is giving lots of financial supports to the entrepreneurs.
(The author is senior lecturer at IHM Kurukshetra. He can be contacted at chefsaurab@gmail.com)
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