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Indian Food & Beverage Trends to Look for in 2020
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Tuesday, 10 December, 2019, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Udit Batra
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In India, food and beverages is the prime category in the consumption set. The F&B sector in India is sustained by the massive agriculture sector. India is the principal fabricator of pulses, and therefore the second principal producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, and fruits and vegetables.
Besides, this India holds the fifth rank in poultry production and is also the biggest producer of milk. Large extents of fertile lands, favourable climate, long coastline, and low wages are few of the examples and helpful factors that support India in being one of the biggest markets and is expected to be the fifth- largest consumer market in the world by 2025, according to a survey.
The loosening rules of the economy in the early 1990s have helped us a lot in minimising the trade barriers. The sector has found a lot of avenues to the market with the event of contemporary retail systems like supermarkets. Meanwhile, transportation and storage logistics have improved.
With the emerging lifestyle of people, habits are also changing. Higher income levels of consumers give them higher disposal incomes which result into more families eating out and trying out different cuisines. Working couples are increasingly purchasing handy foods and have become more reliable on the packaged stuffs as rising urbanisation is leading to changing lifestyles and less time to prepare food at home.
Consumers have become more sensitive in their choices and especially those in urban areas particularly trust branded foods for their promise of quality. A section of consumers, mainly today’s youth have become extremely health and fitness-conscious. This section is moving towards protein-rich foods and fruits and vegetables from carbohydrate-rich or fat-laden items.
Coming to the beverage industry excluding alcoholic beverages, tea and coffee are the most popular beverages, followed by soft drinks (carbonated drinks and juices), health drinks, milk-based drinks, flavoured drinks and energy drinks. Urban Asian country is that the key growth driver for naturally healthy beverages. With lifestyle diseases and conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, an increasing number of Indians are opting for healthier options, such as naturally healthy fruit/vegetable juice, fruit-based drinks and nectars.
People have not even spared water and have taken the bottled water market to next level altogether. The Indian bottled water industry has witnessed an unprecedented boom in recent years which is expected to keep on rising. With the increase in awareness about health benefits of natural mineral water, this segment of bottled water industry is also going to be promising. Further, increase in tourism and also increase in consumers visiting hotels, restaurants, fitness clubs and airports is driving growth in this segment. The key consumers would therefore be the tourists and high profile customers who demand only premium products or Indians who have travelled abroad and have tried natural mineral water.
In India, malt-based beverages are also called health drinks as they are fortified with nutrition and used to enhance the taste of milk. Malt has perpetually been an area of the diet of growing youngsters and the elderly as a nutritious supplement. While marketers have positioned such beverages as nutritious drinks, these are also widely consumed as taste enhancers to encourage drinking of milk among growing children. Greater health-consciousness, aspirations for higher standards of living and comfortable disposable incomes become the most drivers of consumption patterns. More and a lot of tea manufacturers are adding green tea in their portfolio as shoppers in India are developing a style for the drinkable for its several health-promoting effects.
We are seeing the rise of veganism in India as another fad in healthy eating. Thanks to the upsurge in lifestyle-based preferential dining, there has been a tremendous change in the way cooking is concerned, especially in our choice of ingredients, produce and even sauces. Today, chefs take pride in choosing natural sweeteners instead of white sugar, and are making their spice mixes, sauces and even cheese instead of using processed products. The major change has been in the art of modern foraging; chefs are constantly exploring indigenous ingredients that were once integral to our balanced meal. Plant protein such as soy, for instance, or greens such as the water spinach, Indian lotus, yams and even banana blossoms are getting very popular these days.
Other than these, ‘aesthetic’ is the term that millennials have got into the market of food and beverage industry. Colour composed, eye satisfying and insta commendable food is something that the millennials anticipate now. The colour creates passionate intrigue with food, some state the same amount of as taste. And in a universe of social media based life "food porn," adding colours to a dish can help make it somewhat more Instagram-accommodating. Instagram is a tremendous power in the food industry. As more clients snap pictures of food, restaurants are making dishes increasingly fit to posting on the web. The test is making food that is outwardly engaging, and likewise scrumptious. Genuine Instagrammers will wind up steadfast clients to foods that get them noteworthy measure of preferences, while additionally pleasing their taste buds.
One of the many food and beverage trends in 2020 is the experimentation in the bar. From acing the works of classics and speakeasies to high quality mixed drinks, the beverage landscape in India has developed and prospered. Bartenders, today, are nothing not as much as culinary specialists in their curation: from making hand-made cocktail infusions, sharp flavouring or even gin, to investigating more techniques and great ingredients to guarantee that their work is progressively worthwhile. This abrupt change and centred methodology are probably going to proceed.
Be that as it may, the fixation will likewise be on making the bar efficient by exploring different avenues regarding zero wastage bartending. One approach to do this is by sharing assets between the kitchen and the bar to make a solitary fixing based mixed drink which is raised with the utilisation of more current innovations that help a superior mixed drink making society and avoids the counterfeit flavouring items. The other mixed drink style is the perfect style beverages made utilising none of the sugary and counterfeit added substances flavours.
Food and beverage forecasting is not a science, and just like in any art form, trends in the foodservice world are constantly shifting to reflect the changing interests and needs of our guests and consumers. Food and beverage trends and the industry in itself is constantly growing with all sorts of innovations in ingredients, services, and technology that are reverberating around the world.
(The author is F&B director, Smaaash and heads pan-India F&B operations along with NCR & Bangalore cluster)
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