Growing Awareness and Increased Investments Lead to Growth of Biotechnology Applications in the Food & Beverage and Dietary Supplements Sector, Reveals Frost & Sullivan

MUMBAI -

- Frost & Sullivan’s Food & Beverage Focus 2009 Annual Executive MindXchange on Biotechnology Applications in the Food & Beverage and Dietary Supplements Sector

The Indian food processing industry has seen some spectacular product developments such as probiotic fortified yoghurt, buttermilk, omega fortified health drinks and baby foods. A lot more has to be achieved through cutting edge R&D in the field of biotechnology resulting in innovative food and beverage products with improved functional and health benefits.

Production of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), probiotics, and enzymes are some of the key commercialized biotechnology applications in India. In India, consumer awareness about these new age functional ingredients and their health benefits is still low: a key challenge for this industry. Additionally, lack of defined regulations regarding usage of such products or guidelines on health claims in India is a growth restraining factor.

According to a Frost & Sullivan study, key PUFA’s used in food and beverage (F&B) are Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids; however, in India the focus and marketing effort is towards promoting Omega-3 in foods compared to Omega-6: the Indian diet generally contains 5 to 20 times more Omega-6 than Omega-3 PUFA’s. Globally, the US is the largest manufacturer as well as the largest end-user market for PUFA followed by Asia and Europe. The total Indian market revenues for Omega-3 PUFA for food and dietary supplement applications were an estimated INR 40 Crore. Supplement applications command the major market share with over 87 percent of PUFA being used in dietary supplements whereas F&B comprises the rest 13 percent.

In food, probiotics have for long been used in the global market; this is a moderately new concept in India. Commonly dairy foods have been fortified with probiotic strains in India such as Dahi / Yoghurt, Lassi and Ice cream. Dietary supplement is the key end-user segment in India where probiotics are used in conjunction with other vitamins and minerals. Probiotics finds usage in animal feed as well as a supplement for poultry and aquaculture feeds. The total Indian market for probiotic ingredients was valued at an estimated INR 45 Crore as of 2006. Globally, Asia and Europe are the largest producers of probiotics with Europe having a bigger share of the market.

Modern biotechnology offers clear advantages over the conventional mode of production. In a sense, the ability to tailor microbial enzymes to human benefit is what makes this technology so powerful. The total Indian F&B enzymes market was worth INR 88 Crore in 2008. The market grew at 11 percent from 2007 to 2008. The market, which saw an increasing trend from 2006 growing at almost 12 percent, was interrupted by the global economic slowdown in 2007-2008. The end-user industry has not seen a major impact due to the recession. The United States, European Union, and Japan together account for more than 90 percent of the global enzyme market. Some of the countries in Asia such as China, South Korea, India, and Taiwan are expected to offer good growth opportunities.

According to Mamta Wadhwa, Sr. Director, CMF Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia & Middle East, “The market has good scope of growth considering the positive growth of the Indian food processing industry in terms of new investments, new product development. This coupled with growing awareness amongst consumers about product developments in the global market is sure to drive growth in such fermentation-based food ingredients market in the long term.”

The CMF Practice of Frost & Sullivan, the global growth partnership company, in its efforts to address issues on the biotechnology application market faced by Indian companies, organized an Executive MindXchange titled “Food & Beverage Focus 2009″ on 24th July, which gave a special insight into the Biotechnology Applications market in the Food & Beverage and Dietary Supplements sector.

This MindXchange saw a knowledge sharing of global and Indian trends, overview of the Indian market and opportunities, new developments, new technologies, regulations and challenges faced by this sector. Eminent speakers at the summit included - speaker from Avesthagen Ltd, Mr. Hemant Dande - Senior Vice President, Raptakos Brett & Co Ltd, Mr. Krishna Mohan Puvvada - Industry Sales Manager, Novozymes South Asia Pvt. Ltd., Dr J. Sambasiva Rao - Head Technical, Advanced Enzyme Technologies Ltd.,Dr. K.K Tripathi - Biosafety Advisor, Dept of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Smita Singhania, General Manager, Regulatory Affairs, Actis Biologics, Mr. Suhas Chaudhari - Joint Commissioner, FDA (Mumbai), and Mr. Isaac - Chairman and Managing Director, ABL Biotechnologies Ltd.

This event was partnered by Advanced Enzymes and supported by the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises. The media partners for the event were Beverage & Food World, Beverage & Food Processing, BioSpectrum, Times Food Processing Journal, Food & Beverage News, Express Pharma, Modern Food Processing, Processed Food Industry, and Kongposh Publications.

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Media contact: Anish Charles P: +91-22-4001-3419 F: +91-22-2832-4713 E: anish.charles@frost.com Caroline Lewis P: +91-98217-37935 F: +91-22-2832-4713 E: caroline.lewis@frost.com

Source: Frost & Sullivan (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Media contact: Anish Charles, P: +91-22-4001-3419, F: +91-22-2832-4713, E: anish.charles at frost.com; Caroline Lewis, P: +91-98217-37935, F: +91-22-2832-4713, E: caroline.lewis at frost.com