The Centre for Processed Foods (CPF) is now placing greater emphasis on enhancing the nutritive value of traditional Indian anytime snacks, particularly, Chikki, a much eaten sweet made primarily of groundnuts and jaggery besides prepared from sesame seeds and dry fruits too.
Here the Bengaluru-based company, tapping into its widespread popularity has developed nutritious variations of Chikki by incorporating wholesome ingredients.
"This increases the nutritive value of the chikki, the humble confectionery of India, which is customarily prepared at home and relished by all age-groups across states," Chetan Hanchate, CEO, Centre for Processed Foods told FnB News.
"These innovations aim to improve the protein and micronutrient content of the snack. In fact, in this era of health-conscious living that gained momentum post-Covid, our goal is to improve nutrition to enhance public health, boost economic productivity, and support overall well-being," he added.
"We see healthier alternatives to conventional sugary snacks as a smart and practical way to improve nutrition, reduce sugar consumption, and promote better long-term health especially among children and working adults. This is seen to also propel the revival of traditional Indian foods with a modern, health-focused twist," he noted.
By combining traditional recipes with modern nutritional science, CPF is making efforts to provide tasty, wholesome snacks that can fit into contemporary lifestyles without compromising on health. Recently, CPF made efforts to offer their expertise in formulating Chikki recipes which were manufactured in a food processing factory where the Chikki were cut to perfection. The Chikki of CPF are in three variants each with two different millets. This allows consumers to select the Chikki based on their need for traditional and English flavours.
"Post this, companies approached us for guidance going by the viability, ease of preparation, simple packaging consumption demand for healthy options," said Hanchate.
A visible trend is the creation of ‘smart snacking corners’ in offices and schools. Even stocking vending machines with Chikki across corporate houses, public places, gas stations and transport hubs will enable easy access to this satiating, crispy and crunchy snack, he pointed out.
According to Hanchate, with Chikki manufacture, small food entrepreneurs too can use pricing strategies, like lower prices for healthy snacks, higher for sugary ones. The company is now aggressively looking for those companies which can be assisted with the new-age nutritive Chikki preparation.
"We perceive huge demand for Chikki in variant tastes not just across the country but abroad as this is a popular anytime-anywhere snacking delight," said Hanchate.
The company is already being engaged in offering guidance about nutrition to food processing industries. The current regulations mandate need to indicate right validated nutritional values. It chips in guidance in food and beverage testing through its networked laboratories and validate it with calculated nutritional values to authenticate the claims.