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The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) held an International Conference on “Opportunities for Health and Functional Foods” at CII Northern Region Headquarters, Chandigarh as part of CII AgroTech 2010. With consumers becoming more health conscious, the Conference focused on how this segment could be a driver for the market for processed Health and Functional foods.

Moderating the conference, Rajesh Srivastava, Co - Chairman, Agro Tech 2010 Conferences & CMD, Rabo Equity Services stated, “Sustained economic growth and fast-paced urbanization are two major trends set to fuel growth of the India’s food processing sector. The segment can be an opportunity for economic growth for countries like India endowed with rich biodiversity and traditional knowledge of the health effects of certain indigenous plant species. Besides the opportunity for diversified and high value production, farming for the functional food industry can benefit primary producers in many ways such as contract farming, employment or business opportunities from processing functional foods etc."

In his keynote address, Henk van Duijn, Agricultural Counsellor, Embassy of The Netherlands, compared the food standards of India with those of Netherlands. "Today, we need to think about food production in a different way, because obesity and malnutrition are becoming major problems in India,” he stated. “If you want to stay healthy, you need functional food. India has the opportunity to be the center of the world in food processing and for this, public-private partnership is the key,” he added.

A panel discussion raised some very interesting points. The panelists included Dr Firdaus Nehvi, Scientist & Head, KD Research Station on Saffron; Ms Robin McRae, Food Development Centre, Manitoba, Canada; M N Lari, MD, Abdullah Fresh Foods Ltd; N K Jawa, CEO, Fresh and Healthy Enterprises and S Venkataraman, Senior Advisor, Rabo India Finance.

Dr Firdaus Nehvi briefed the delegates about the benefits of Saffron as a functional food and said, “Recent studies have shown that Kashmiri saffron is unique and is best in the world owing to its high concentration of nutrients, which makes it a functional food as it can treat many human disorders.” Ms. Robin McRae said “We look at adding value to emerging crops like Seabuckthorn, which is rich in Vitamin C and can be used as a functional food. We would like to bring our technology to India and collaborate with Indian companies here.”

M N Lari expressed his views on blending functional and traditional foods of India with some other tasty foods already present in the market. He stated, “We have already started mango blended amla drink. Such functional food products coming up will help leverage industry and also benefit consumers.”  Jawa gave an example of the need of packaged food which could be used by the Railways. He said, “Today, there is an opportunity for big enterprises in India to come up with fresh packaged fruits that will be healthy and hygienic. This can be served in trains along with the ice creams served presently as dessert.” S Venkataraman spoke about other functional foods and packaging innovations of the food items.

About CII AgroTech 2010

CII Agro Tech 2010, was held in Chandigarh from December 3-6, 2010. AgroTech is a Biennial Agro Technology and Business Fair with a large domestic participation and significant international presence. Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India is the partner Ministry while Punjab & Haryana are the host states. Canada, France, Germany, South Korea and UK set up their pavilions while companies from Australia, Italy, Spain and USA also showcased their products and services.

Source: Confederation of Indian Industries

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