India is the world’s second-largest producer of food next to China, and has the potential of being the largest with robust growth in food and agricultural sectors.
The beverage industry is made up of an array of products including alcoholic drinks, non-alcoholic drinks, juice/health drinks, and aerated drinks. Beverages are currently receiving considerable attention as their market potential is growing. The soft drink industry had made significant progress during last several years in terms of production.
The food processing industry in India has a turnover of around US$65 billion which includes value-added products of around US$20.6 billion. The beverage industry in India constitutes of around US$230 million among the US$65 billion food processing industry. The major sectors in beverage industry in India are tea and coffee which are not only sold heavily in the domestic market but also exported to a range of leading overseas markets. Fruit juices, pulp and concentrates and sauces or ketchups are doing very well in the beverage market in India for the past few years. Various milk products, health beverages, beer and country liquors have also been contributing largely to the rising demand of beverages in India.
Nowadays the functional beverage market is a growing sector of the beverage industry as modern health-conscious consumers show an increasing desire for foods that can improve well-being and reduce the risk of disease. It is also intriguing to note that a number of food companies that have been under pressure, due to the poor public perception regarding the ‘healthiness’ of the foods they produce, are now focussing on developing such functional beverages.
Challenges
Although the Indian beverage industry is rapidly emerging, still the level of food processing is lower in contrast to other countries. The beverage industry presents real challenges to each of the stakeholder community. The challenge to the industry is how to effectively develop and market beverages. To the consumer, the challenge is whether or not to believe the experts and if so what is the proposed benefits of beverages. The challenge of the regulators is how to strike a balance in preventing false and misleading information from reaching consumers while encouraging the use of beverages to attain a healthy lifestyle and for scientists the challenge is to provide the scientific evidence with which to understand the impact of beverages on health and evaluate the evidence offered in substantiation of specific claim. The communication of the functional beverages to consumers is also a big challenge for companies. Technological challenges associated with functional beverages are release of functional compounds throughout the lifestyle. Effects on sensory properties, appropriateness of beverage raw material chosen for fortification as a delivery system for target population and cost- effectiveness are also big challenges. The major problem faced by the sector are deficiencies in research and development, industry academia gap, skill gap, technology gap, meeting global quality standards, increased number of small and unstructured players and administrative barriers. Further absence of forward and backward connection in the food value chain, insufficient agricultural and processing framework and incapable marketing system are other key challenges in this sector.
Trends
Changing consumer demands and increasing global competition are causing the beverage product manufacturing sector to embrace new processing technologies and new ingredient systems. There are various health promoting ingredients that when incorporated at appropriate levels can make beverage products healthier or functional. Use of dietary fibre and antioxidants are having much importance in enhancing nutraceutical potential of beverages. Dietary fibre as a class of compounds includes a mixture of plant carbohydrate polymers, both oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, e.g., cellulose, hemicelluloses, pectic substances, gums, resistant starch, inulin and so on.
Dietary fibre imparts various and much important functional properties to foods, e.g., increase water-holding capacity, oil-holding capacity, emulsification and/or gel formation. Indeed, we shall illustrate that dietary fibre incorporated into food products (dairy, jams, soups) can modify textural properties, avoid synaeresis, stabilise high fat food and emulsions, and improve shelf-life.
Oat bran, barley bran, and psyllium, mostly soluble fibre, have earned a healthy reputation for their ability to lower blood lipid levels. Wheat bran and other more insoluble fibres are typically linked to laxative properties. Antioxidant activity is a fundamental property important for life. Many of the biological functions, such as antimutagenity, anticarcinogenity and antiageing, among others, originate from this property. These naturally occurring minor components of foods are biologically active in the human system. Several classes of compounds that occur in plant foods may have antioxidant properties in the body which include vitamin E, vitamin C, carotenoids, flavonoids, and other phenolic compounds. Incorporation of such compounds in beverages will enhance their health promoting properties. Probiotic fortification is a well-established approach to produce beverages with functional properties. Probiotic beverages are considered a promising alternative to probiotic dairy products, since these food formulations can better meet the wants of particular categories of consumers, as vegetarians and vegans, lactose-intolerants, individuals with low-cholesterol intake need. The other trends in development of market potential of beverages include that the consumers need to be communicated about the health benefits of beverages than other foods. Considering the costs of development and clinical trials, innovation in the functional beverage market may need to become a collaborative effort between industry partners and academia. Most of the beverages developed in India are still in the early stages of commercial development, and require further extensive sensory, physical and chemical characterisation to develop a palatable flavour profile and viable product.
Cold chain
Cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain and the term is specifically used in the context of food and beverage industries. It is a supply chain for perishables that ensures that there are minimal temperature fluctuations for goods in transit from place of production to the point of consumption. The temperature required in a cold chain depends on the nature of product under transit. Cold chain management refers to maintaining the proper temperature of the products through all the handoffs in the cold chain until it reaches the consumer. Freezing foods can preserve them in a good condition, as acceptable to the customer as the fresh product, for long periods by preserving the wholeness and quality. It restrains bacteria and slows down the biological reaction that deteriorates the food. The cold chain constitutes the following components: Pre-cooling facilities; Cold storages; Refrigerated carriers; Packaging; and Warehousing.
The present cold chain capacity in India stands at 19.5 million tonne. The positive future outlook for food processing, agriculture and retail, calls for the development of integrated and intelligent cold chain networks across the country. According to industry analysts, integrated cold chains and supply chain management would help India in saving Rs 750 billion annually by reducing wastage of perishable horticulture produce by 30%, besides garnering additional export revenue of Rs 250 billion. India is facing a shortage of cold storages, leading to a loss of about 40% of the agri-produce post-harvest. The Indian cold chain market is largely untapped and dominated by the unorganised sector thus offering immense investment and development opportunities. Though India has potential of becoming food supplier of the world it lacks right marketing strategies and efficient supply & cold chains management. The biggest challenge lies in connecting the remote villages of India to the robust supply chains so that all stakeholders get benefited and wastages can be mitigated to the extent possible. By building an efficient and effective supply chain using state-of-the-art techniques it is possible to serve the population with value-added food while simultaneously ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers.
Few challenges
?Lack of an integrated approach and efforts for effective policy formulation.
?Viability of cold chain continues to remain a question mark for many reasons; existing facilities are outdated and poorly maintained.
?Awareness and hence demand for cold chain services continues to be low.
?Lack of availability of technically qualified people to support efficient operations.
Also, the supply chain needs to be designed and built as a whole in an integrated manner with the processes of new product development, procurement and order to delivery processes well designed and well supported using IT tools and software.
