Best wrappers
The shelf life of a product largely depends on its
packaging protection. SN Sabapathy and AS Bawa explain
why retort pouches are the best bet for RTE products
I ndia, being blessed with unsurpassed
natural advantages, has a strong
competitive advantage in food
processing. It not only ranks first in the
world in production of cereals, livestock
population and milk, but is also the second
largest fruit and vegetable producer and is
among the top five producers of rice, wheat,
groundnuts, tea, coffee, spices, sugar and
oilseeds. This gives it a unique advantage
and tremendous potential for processing of
agriculture produce.
The food processing activity is poised for
rapid expansion. The size of the processed
food industry is estimated at Rs 1440
billion. The unorganised small players
process more than 75 per cent of the
industry output in volume terms and
50 per cent in terms of value.
The Indian processed food industry is
growing overall at about 15 per cent and is
estimated to rise from US$ 20 billion to US$
60 billion by 2005. According to the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO), processed
foods can be of three types - primary,
secondary and tertiary. Primary processed
foods involve basic cleaning, grading and
packaging. Secondary processing means
modification of the basic product to a stage
just before the final preparation. Tertiary
processing leads to high value-added ready-toeat
products like bakery products, instant
foods etc.
Retort processing of foods in rigid, semi
rigid and flexible packaging systems is the
most acceptable form of food preservation.
Retort processing of foods is classified under
tertiary processing and represents a unique
combination of product, process and package
technologies with potential, functional,
quality and economical benefits (Fig 1). The
increased consumer awareness and
inhibition/dislike to accept other methods of
food preservation such as use of chemical
preservatives, irradiation etc., has lead to a
vast scope for retort processed foods.
Although retort pouch processing of foods
is similar to conventional canning, it has
certain major advantages like (i) less energy
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