Pre-mixes and sauces have transformed the current food and beverage scenario is more ways than one and enables the industry to profit in many ways. Mayur Ramachandran, Executive Chef, Holiday Inn, Bengaluru Racecourse suggests, “A cook/consumer sitting in Chennai can cook up Mexican meals for their friends, guests and relatives. That’s the command that we are talking here about. It provides the user the capacity to authoritatively dish out recipes without being too stressed out of the end result.”
Consumers irrespective of their culture or nationality are always looking for exciting options when it comes to their drinks. Premixes allow them to have cocktails at home without much fuss. Most tier 2 cities in India don’t have bartenders; they simply dispense alcohol with carbonated sodas or juices.
“Why should consumers be deprived of good cocktails here?” asks Rakesh Sheth, Founder, & Stirred. He says, “Cocktails in India are restricted to a good bar (read expensive) and this is the reason India is not a big cocktail market. Premixes allow consumers in smaller markets to enjoy cocktails at an accessible price and without the need of having a bartender. This will play an important role in enrolling consumers within the cocktail category eventually expanding the category.”
This growing trend of tasting or experiencing multiple cuisines especially by millennials is helping food industry gain profit and at the same time serves more cuisines from across the world to customers. Defined pre-mixes is also helping to gain profit by creating taste loyalty factor especially by food chains like KFC , Domino’s Pizza and McDonald’s. Arun Mathur Senior Executive Sous Chef of Trident, Gurgaon while talking on this term says, “Start-up food joints keep their investments low with less space, limited manpower having access to multi cuisines. It helps in revenue and profit maximisation.” Food truck joints, food joints at malls, take aways are a few examples of on the move food joints.
One should remember that the scope of these convenience foods again depends on the quality, processing techniques, preservation methods & the shelf life of the products. All these factors should be in par with the hotels/industries’ F&B standards. Stalin Louis, Executive Sous Chef, Fortune Hotels by ITC insist that in today’s world, with ample number of options of convenient foods, the consumers are very much concerned about chemical free/preservative free/additive free products. They would rather opt for the products which are naturally preserved and free from artificial flavours. The more authentic and natural your product is the more it sells. So this needs to be taken care of to preponderate in this industry.
The market, however, seems to boon with the use of pre-mixes and sauces. Bidesh Biswas, Executive Chef, Hometel Chandigarh vocalises it by pointing out that with strong control on the manpower cost and raw material cost, these premixes, owing to its longer shelf life, help chefs create their menus without getting to worry about the preparation and time. So, it becomes virtually impossible for a chef to be a master of all cuisines and cater to the growing demands of the various cuisines which in turn gives tremendous scope for the industry and also trend being followed for the availability of ingredients and sauces.
As of today, we see, there is abundance in the variety of pre-mixes and sauces which are readily available in the market for instant use. As both products serve an individual purpose, choosing one over the other or using both together, is open to taste preferences. So, according to Rajeev Janveja, Corporate Chef, Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd., ultimately, this helps the F&B sector in meeting every customer’s taste palate requirements and offering variety. While catering to customers who prefer a consistent product in terms of taste, appearance and texture point of view; user friendly ingredients add ease to the process of training the staff and make cooking a seamless process.”
One thing that definetly goes in favour of using pre-mixes and that should be considered a huge hit for the industry to boon is that when it comes to food that is lesser-known or the seasonal ingredients, pre-mixes are the ones that save the day. Kapil Sahi, Executive Chef , Radisson Noida agrees with this as he asserts that this one factor increases awareness and enhances profitability in the F&B industry.
Increased consumer demands for sustainable products that address growing interest in healthy foods, a desire for quality restaurant, and ready-to-eat products will shape food and drink trends for the coming year. Evergreen consumptions and sustainability is moving beyond farm to fork. This 360-degree approach will not only involve improving access to recycling, but also creating products that use ingredients grown using regenerative agriculture practices.
