Saturday, November 23, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
US moves to ban artificial trans fats in food
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed measures that
would all but eliminate artificial trans fats, the artery clogging
substance that is a major contributor to heart disease in the United
States, from the food supply.
Under the proposal, which is open for public comment for 60 days, the agency would declare that partially hydrogenated oils, the source of trans fats, were no longer "generally recognized as safe," a legal category that permits the use of salt and caffeine, for example. That means companies would have to prove scientifically that partially hydrogenated oils are safe to eat, a very high hurdle given that scientific literature overwhelmingly shows the contrary.
The Institute of Medicine has concluded that there is no safe level for consumption of artificial trans fats.
"That will make it a challenge, to be honest," said Michael R Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA. Margaret A Hamburg, the agency's commissioner, said the rules could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year.
The move concluded three decades of battles by public health advocates against artificial trans fats, which occur when liquid oil is treated with hydrogen gas and made solid. The long-lasting fats became popular in frying and baking and in household items like margarine, and were cheaper than animal fat, like butter.
But over the years, scientific evidence has shown they are worse than any other fat for health because they raise the levels of so-called bad cholesterol and can lower the levels of good cholesterol. In 2006, an FDA rule went into effect requiring that artificial trans fats be listed on food labels, a shift that prompted many large producers to eliminate them. A year earlier, New York City told restaurants to stop using artificial trans fats in cooking. Many major chains like McDonalds, found substitutes, and eliminated trans fats.
Those actions led to major advances in public health: Trans fat intake declined among Americans to about one gram a day in 2012, down from 4.6 grams in 2006. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that blood levels of trans fatty acids among white adults in the US declined by 58% from 2000 to 2009.
But the fats were not banned, and still lurk in many popular processed foods, such as microwave popcorn, certain desserts, frozen pizzas, margarines and coffee creamers. "The artery is still half clogged," said Thomas R Frieden, the director of the disease centers. "This is about preventing people from being exposed to a harmful chemical that most of the time they didn't even know was there."
He noted that artificial trans fats are required to be on the label only if there is more than half a gram per serving, a trace amount that can add up fast and lead to increased risk of heart attack.
Even as little as two or three grams of trans fat a day can increase the health risk, scientists say. NYT NEWS SERVICE
Under the proposal, which is open for public comment for 60 days, the agency would declare that partially hydrogenated oils, the source of trans fats, were no longer "generally recognized as safe," a legal category that permits the use of salt and caffeine, for example. That means companies would have to prove scientifically that partially hydrogenated oils are safe to eat, a very high hurdle given that scientific literature overwhelmingly shows the contrary.
The Institute of Medicine has concluded that there is no safe level for consumption of artificial trans fats.
"That will make it a challenge, to be honest," said Michael R Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA. Margaret A Hamburg, the agency's commissioner, said the rules could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year.
The move concluded three decades of battles by public health advocates against artificial trans fats, which occur when liquid oil is treated with hydrogen gas and made solid. The long-lasting fats became popular in frying and baking and in household items like margarine, and were cheaper than animal fat, like butter.
But over the years, scientific evidence has shown they are worse than any other fat for health because they raise the levels of so-called bad cholesterol and can lower the levels of good cholesterol. In 2006, an FDA rule went into effect requiring that artificial trans fats be listed on food labels, a shift that prompted many large producers to eliminate them. A year earlier, New York City told restaurants to stop using artificial trans fats in cooking. Many major chains like McDonalds, found substitutes, and eliminated trans fats.
Those actions led to major advances in public health: Trans fat intake declined among Americans to about one gram a day in 2012, down from 4.6 grams in 2006. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that blood levels of trans fatty acids among white adults in the US declined by 58% from 2000 to 2009.
But the fats were not banned, and still lurk in many popular processed foods, such as microwave popcorn, certain desserts, frozen pizzas, margarines and coffee creamers. "The artery is still half clogged," said Thomas R Frieden, the director of the disease centers. "This is about preventing people from being exposed to a harmful chemical that most of the time they didn't even know was there."
He noted that artificial trans fats are required to be on the label only if there is more than half a gram per serving, a trace amount that can add up fast and lead to increased risk of heart attack.
Even as little as two or three grams of trans fat a day can increase the health risk, scientists say. NYT NEWS SERVICE
Gourmet’s lodestar: Tarla Dalal tickled our palate with the delights of India’s eclectic vegetarian traditions
RELATED
While the tributes paid to Tarla Dalal
following her death in Mumbai on Wednesday have been fulsome, they do
not quite reflect the enormity of her contribution to expanding the
culinary horizons of her compatriots. Before she arrived on the scene
with the publication of The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking in 1974,
food writers tended to focus on their local culinary traditions.
Exceptions to this norm - such as Madhur Jaffrey and Thangam E Philip -
were few and far between. It is Tarla Dalal who pioneered efforts to
expose our palate to the exuberantly eclectic range of Indian vegetarian
dishes, sweets, savouries, pickles, chutneys and preserves (including,
in the first place, those of Gujarat) as well as to flavours from other
climes such as Italy, Thailand and China.
This singular achievement recalls similar accomplishments of some distinguished food writers of the last century. Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson, for example, were hailed for changing the food habits of the British, much like Julia Child and MFK Fisher earned the gratitude of their fellow Americans for introducing them to the delights of French gastronomy.
These writers however were also praised for their literary gifts and their lively interest in culinary history - something that Tarla Dalal didn't match or even aspire to match. Her ambitions were modest: to provide recipes that used locally-available ingredients and involved uncomplicated cooking techniques. She was also fiendishly health-conscious. That explains the whopping popularity of her books - more than a hundred, many translated into several Indian and foreign languages - as well as of her TV shows and website. The legacy she leaves behind - a celebration of the tastes of India - will continue to inspire and enchant cooks and gourmets for years to come.
This singular achievement recalls similar accomplishments of some distinguished food writers of the last century. Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson, for example, were hailed for changing the food habits of the British, much like Julia Child and MFK Fisher earned the gratitude of their fellow Americans for introducing them to the delights of French gastronomy.
These writers however were also praised for their literary gifts and their lively interest in culinary history - something that Tarla Dalal didn't match or even aspire to match. Her ambitions were modest: to provide recipes that used locally-available ingredients and involved uncomplicated cooking techniques. She was also fiendishly health-conscious. That explains the whopping popularity of her books - more than a hundred, many translated into several Indian and foreign languages - as well as of her TV shows and website. The legacy she leaves behind - a celebration of the tastes of India - will continue to inspire and enchant cooks and gourmets for years to come.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Here’s why you MUST eat garlic
Here’s why you should eat garlic
Reasons garlic is good for you
- Garlic is antiviral and antifungal. It has been used for centuries for its antibacterial properties. The chemical component of garlic, allicin, has been shown to prevent the growth of the candida albicans fungus.
- Garlic can reduce cholesterol. Its powerful antioxidant properties prevent free radical damage to the arterial lining and stop the formation of scar tissue.
- Eat garlic to lower your blood pressure. Garlic has the ability to decrease platelet stickiness, which will help in making your blood thinner.
- Garlic can help to regulate blood sugar levels, which is good for people with type 2 diabetes.
- Baked potatoes and baked garlic with cress salad — this is a simple way to eat garlic and tastes great
- Fight colds and flu by eating garlic whenever you can in soups and salads. It's also delicious as a roasted vegetable
- Garlic is antiviral and antifungal. It has been used for centuries for its antibacterial properties. The chemical component of garlic, allicin, has been shown to prevent the growth of the candida albicans fungus.
- Garlic can reduce cholesterol. Its powerful antioxidant properties prevent free radical damage to the arterial lining and stop the formation of scar tissue.
- Eat garlic to lower your blood pressure. Garlic has the ability to decrease platelet stickiness, which will help in making your blood thinner.
- Garlic can help to regulate blood sugar levels, which is good for people with type 2 diabetes.
- Baked potatoes and baked garlic with cress salad — this is a simple way to eat garlic and tastes great
- Fight colds and flu by eating garlic whenever you can in soups and salads. It's also delicious as a roasted vegetable
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Diu loses its Portuguese palate
RELATED
DIU: Diu has been called Goa without hippies. This island town, spread on 14 sq km island, has successfully been the watering hole for those from dry Gujarat for long. However, the sleepy place seems to be slowly drifting away from a precious heritage - its unique Portuguese cuisine.
While the local food in Diu has long been a mix of Gujarati and Portuguese fare, the effect of the later seems to be fading away. A search for authentic Portuguese cooking can be long and disappointing.
There were only 50 Portuguese-speaking Roman Catholic families left in the town in 2012, according to data provided by the district collector Ramesh Verma's office. Many of the families offered authentic Portuguese delicacies of tourists but most of them have moved to Europe and even to Daman and Goa. Today, you can have your quarter, but you can't follow it up with Lisbon-style shrimp soup.
Another major reason is finding the right ingredients. As the demand went down over the years, the supply of unique ingredients dried up, says Gelia Brito, who runs a small snack counter right outside Diu Museum.
Piri piri (small, fiery chilli peppers of African origin) is among the unique spices giving Portuguese cooking a unique flavour. The cooking also uses black pepper, cinnamon, vanilla and saffron in comparatively larger quantities. Olive oil is one of its bases both for cooking and flavouring meals. Garlic is widely used, as are herbs such as coriander and parsley.
"Inflation is the other reason why I have stopped cooking for tourists. The pomfret costs 60% more than last year and King fish is even costlier," Brito says.
Portugal has Europe's highest fish consumption per capita. It is among the top four fish-eaters in the world and is often referred to as the Seafood Nation. While fish is the staple diet, salt cod and sardine are most popular. These again are not easily available in Diu.
Moreover, as dried and salted fish need to be soaked in water or milk before being cooked, preparing food takes time. No wonder, only a couple of restaurants that do offer Portuguese cuisine do not have such delicacies on their menu.
Cozido de peixe, a kind of fish stew; Penn de calamari, pasta with squid; Caldo de camarao, fresh shrimp soup or cozido de camarao are the general items in Portuguese section of the menu of eateries. Bacalhau com natas, which is fish baked with cream and potatoes, a regular preparation in Goa is also absent. Surprisingly, there is not a single restaurant that serves only Portuguese cuisine.
A patient search may lead you to O'Coqueiro (Coconunt Tree) restaurant in Firangiwada area of the city. Ironically, the places is owned and run by Kailesh Pandey, who hails from Nainital. He says he learnt Portuguese preparations from local matriarchs.
"Despite common roots, Portuguese food in Diu and Goa tastes different as it has more regional influence. I am able to serve Portuguese cuisine as I run a small place; still the menu has to be limited. It just doesn't make sense commercially to offer more," he says.
While the local food in Diu has long been a mix of Gujarati and Portuguese fare, the effect of the later seems to be fading away. A search for authentic Portuguese cooking can be long and disappointing.
There were only 50 Portuguese-speaking Roman Catholic families left in the town in 2012, according to data provided by the district collector Ramesh Verma's office. Many of the families offered authentic Portuguese delicacies of tourists but most of them have moved to Europe and even to Daman and Goa. Today, you can have your quarter, but you can't follow it up with Lisbon-style shrimp soup.
Another major reason is finding the right ingredients. As the demand went down over the years, the supply of unique ingredients dried up, says Gelia Brito, who runs a small snack counter right outside Diu Museum.
Piri piri (small, fiery chilli peppers of African origin) is among the unique spices giving Portuguese cooking a unique flavour. The cooking also uses black pepper, cinnamon, vanilla and saffron in comparatively larger quantities. Olive oil is one of its bases both for cooking and flavouring meals. Garlic is widely used, as are herbs such as coriander and parsley.
"Inflation is the other reason why I have stopped cooking for tourists. The pomfret costs 60% more than last year and King fish is even costlier," Brito says.
Portugal has Europe's highest fish consumption per capita. It is among the top four fish-eaters in the world and is often referred to as the Seafood Nation. While fish is the staple diet, salt cod and sardine are most popular. These again are not easily available in Diu.
Moreover, as dried and salted fish need to be soaked in water or milk before being cooked, preparing food takes time. No wonder, only a couple of restaurants that do offer Portuguese cuisine do not have such delicacies on their menu.
Cozido de peixe, a kind of fish stew; Penn de calamari, pasta with squid; Caldo de camarao, fresh shrimp soup or cozido de camarao are the general items in Portuguese section of the menu of eateries. Bacalhau com natas, which is fish baked with cream and potatoes, a regular preparation in Goa is also absent. Surprisingly, there is not a single restaurant that serves only Portuguese cuisine.
A patient search may lead you to O'Coqueiro (Coconunt Tree) restaurant in Firangiwada area of the city. Ironically, the places is owned and run by Kailesh Pandey, who hails from Nainital. He says he learnt Portuguese preparations from local matriarchs.
"Despite common roots, Portuguese food in Diu and Goa tastes different as it has more regional influence. I am able to serve Portuguese cuisine as I run a small place; still the menu has to be limited. It just doesn't make sense commercially to offer more," he says.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
huh? American kids drank beer? Made from roots?
Nannari syrup with soda makes for great root beer
Reading American comics like Archie and Dennis the Menace as a kid
required an ability to isolate items that seemed to make no sense. These
American kids played cricket with a thick stick — OK, whatever.?!
And they ate peanut butter with jelly — how did they get the quivering dessert which was what I knew as jelly to stick onto a slice of bread, and did the peanut butter really help? But, fine, it was their taste.
And they washed this down with root beer — huh?! American kids drank beer? Made from roots?
And they ate peanut butter with jelly — how did they get the quivering dessert which was what I knew as jelly to stick onto a slice of bread, and did the peanut butter really help? But, fine, it was their taste.
And they washed this down with root beer — huh?! American kids drank beer? Made from roots?
I finally got to try it when I visited the US and it was a surprise. I
had learned by then that, sadly, commercially made root beer no longer
contained alcohol, but this dark fizzy liquid looked like a cola. It
was, in fact, one of a number of drinks first concocted in 19th century
USA for medicinal purposes, which, with the addition of soda
water and much sugar, found even more popularity under names like Coca
Cola (which originally contained cocaine and cola nut extract)
and Pepsi Cola (meant, as the name indicates, to help with dyspepsia).
Root beer was based on two very different plants which shared a similar herby sweetness — the sassafras tree and the sarsaparilla creeper. Both were used by Native Americans as medicinal herbs, and were enthusiastically taken up by Europeans who presumably felt that something so strong tasting must have benefits. They were both used as medicines in their own right, and to flavour other, more bitter tasting medicines, which is probably why they became less popular over time.
When the association of a taste is with something strongly medicinal, you're likely to take against it (Coke and Pepsi avoided sarsaparilla flavours for more citrusy ones, which is why they don't seem medicinal). India too has sarsaparilla flavours in its herbarium. There are again two herbs with similar tastes and both were known to ayurveda before the British discovered them and, confusingly, named them both Indian sarsaparilla for their similarity to the American herb.
One is a forest creeper called Crytolepis buchanani, but the more common one is Hemidesmus indicus, a shrub with slender leaves that grows across much of India, and which is known by names like anantamulor nannari. Dominik Wujastyk's The Roots of Ayurveda, a selection of famous ayurvedic texts, lists both types of Indian sarsaparilla as being the ingredients used at the start of making a preparation known as the Great Good Luck Ghee.
As seems to be common to such traditional medicines, these herbs are credited with a bewildering range of benefits. One text I found online described Indian sarsaparilla as being "aphrodisiac, antipyretic, alexiteric, antidiarrhoeal, astringent..." and that's only the As. I am no expert on the validity of any of this (though I didn't notice anything in particular relating to the first term), but the one thing I can say for sure is that Indian sarsaparilla also tastes pretty good.
In fact, it tastes rather better than American sarsaparilla, which has a certain bitter intensity that presumably American kids have got used to while drinking root beer, but which can come as a surprise to first time tasters. Indian sarsaparilla (meaning Hemidesmus indicus) takes the basic herby sweetness of sarsaparilla, but eliminates the bitter notes and adds on a wonderful aroma, part woody, part vanilla. When you try it you first get the intense herbal taste, but after a couple of seconds a secondary aroma unfurls across your palate and up your nose.
and Pepsi Cola (meant, as the name indicates, to help with dyspepsia).
Root beer was based on two very different plants which shared a similar herby sweetness — the sassafras tree and the sarsaparilla creeper. Both were used by Native Americans as medicinal herbs, and were enthusiastically taken up by Europeans who presumably felt that something so strong tasting must have benefits. They were both used as medicines in their own right, and to flavour other, more bitter tasting medicines, which is probably why they became less popular over time.
When the association of a taste is with something strongly medicinal, you're likely to take against it (Coke and Pepsi avoided sarsaparilla flavours for more citrusy ones, which is why they don't seem medicinal). India too has sarsaparilla flavours in its herbarium. There are again two herbs with similar tastes and both were known to ayurveda before the British discovered them and, confusingly, named them both Indian sarsaparilla for their similarity to the American herb.
One is a forest creeper called Crytolepis buchanani, but the more common one is Hemidesmus indicus, a shrub with slender leaves that grows across much of India, and which is known by names like anantamulor nannari. Dominik Wujastyk's The Roots of Ayurveda, a selection of famous ayurvedic texts, lists both types of Indian sarsaparilla as being the ingredients used at the start of making a preparation known as the Great Good Luck Ghee.
As seems to be common to such traditional medicines, these herbs are credited with a bewildering range of benefits. One text I found online described Indian sarsaparilla as being "aphrodisiac, antipyretic, alexiteric, antidiarrhoeal, astringent..." and that's only the As. I am no expert on the validity of any of this (though I didn't notice anything in particular relating to the first term), but the one thing I can say for sure is that Indian sarsaparilla also tastes pretty good.
In fact, it tastes rather better than American sarsaparilla, which has a certain bitter intensity that presumably American kids have got used to while drinking root beer, but which can come as a surprise to first time tasters. Indian sarsaparilla (meaning Hemidesmus indicus) takes the basic herby sweetness of sarsaparilla, but eliminates the bitter notes and adds on a wonderful aroma, part woody, part vanilla. When you try it you first get the intense herbal taste, but after a couple of seconds a secondary aroma unfurls across your palate and up your nose.
It is like smelling vanilla cookies, rum cakes and gingerbread being
baked in an old bakery with a wood burning stove. There is a parallel
here with the class of perfumes known as gourmand aromas for their
spicysweet food smells, of which Thierry Mugler's Angel is the best
known. They are fiercely polarising perfumes with some people adoring
them and other people unable to understand why anyone would want to
smell like a bakery. If you're in the first category, then Indian
sarsaparilla is for you.
As an ayurvedic herb Indian sarsaparilla is known across the country, but as a beverage, known as nannari syrup, it only seems to be popular in South India. Even here it is something of a vanishing taste, with people remembering it from their childhood, but rarely having tried it recently.
It does take getting used to -the woody note, in particular, is almost too weird, but it is also intriguing, so you keep trying it again and again to figure out if you really like it, and before you know it you are hooked. Nannari syrup is one of those things which you aren't entirely sure you like, and then before you know it you've finished most of the bottle.
To find it you have to go to places like Matunga in Mumbai where South Indian stores stock items you will get nowhere else in the city. (In Chennai itself I couldn't it find it in most regular stores, until I went to Triplicane in the old part of the city). A few stores may stock the syrup, but if you want the roots you will have to go to Kannara Stores, a shop that has a distinctly witchy air, with its boxes of dried roots, berries and barks. The syrup is easiest to use, but I find is often made too sweet, so it's not a bad idea to buy some roots and try making a more balanced syrup yourself.
Nannari syrup is great to drink when it's hot, since its woody notes are cooling. If you add it to soda you have root beer better than any American kind, and I've also made a great cocktail by adding a shot to sparkling white wine. But I also find it is good to drink warm — brewing the roots into tea or adding the syrup to warm milk. The warm, spicy vanilla smells are wonderfully soothing, good to drink when even a monsoon as meagre as this one leaves its full complement of colds and chills. Perhaps all those multiple health claims for Indian sarsaparilla might be true, and this is the one medicine that is really as good to drink as it is good for you.
The
plant Indian Sarsaparilla is grown for it's root. The extract taken
from the roots are the natural coolant and has a lot of medicinal
qualities.
This medicinal plant is native to South Asia. The plant is a slender, laticiferous, twining shrub. The leaves are opposite, short-petioled, elliptic-oblong to linear-lanceolate. The roots are woody and aromatic. The inner part of the roots are white in color and the outer part is brown in color. The root has a pleasant odour with astringent taste.
Indian Sarsaparilla roots are mainly used to make beverages. An extract is prepared from its roots by means of steam distillation. It is then mixed with sugar or (palm sugar), water and citric acid proportionately to evolve a concentrate drink. Sugar is added, since to remove the astringent taste from it. These mixture acts as diaphoretic and also used as demulcent to relieve body pain. It keeps the body cool. Besides, Indian Sarsaparilla root is diuretic, as it tones up the urinary system and helps in preventing stone formation. It also controls tonsillitis.
It is also a component of several medicinal preparations in Ayurveda and administered in the form of powder, infusion or decoction as syrup.
local name: nannari
[image: the roots of Indian Sarsaparilla plant]
As an ayurvedic herb Indian sarsaparilla is known across the country, but as a beverage, known as nannari syrup, it only seems to be popular in South India. Even here it is something of a vanishing taste, with people remembering it from their childhood, but rarely having tried it recently.
It does take getting used to -the woody note, in particular, is almost too weird, but it is also intriguing, so you keep trying it again and again to figure out if you really like it, and before you know it you are hooked. Nannari syrup is one of those things which you aren't entirely sure you like, and then before you know it you've finished most of the bottle.
To find it you have to go to places like Matunga in Mumbai where South Indian stores stock items you will get nowhere else in the city. (In Chennai itself I couldn't it find it in most regular stores, until I went to Triplicane in the old part of the city). A few stores may stock the syrup, but if you want the roots you will have to go to Kannara Stores, a shop that has a distinctly witchy air, with its boxes of dried roots, berries and barks. The syrup is easiest to use, but I find is often made too sweet, so it's not a bad idea to buy some roots and try making a more balanced syrup yourself.
Nannari syrup is great to drink when it's hot, since its woody notes are cooling. If you add it to soda you have root beer better than any American kind, and I've also made a great cocktail by adding a shot to sparkling white wine. But I also find it is good to drink warm — brewing the roots into tea or adding the syrup to warm milk. The warm, spicy vanilla smells are wonderfully soothing, good to drink when even a monsoon as meagre as this one leaves its full complement of colds and chills. Perhaps all those multiple health claims for Indian sarsaparilla might be true, and this is the one medicine that is really as good to drink as it is good for you.
Indian Sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus indicus)
The
plant Indian Sarsaparilla is grown for it's root. The extract taken
from the roots are the natural coolant and has a lot of medicinal
qualities.This medicinal plant is native to South Asia. The plant is a slender, laticiferous, twining shrub. The leaves are opposite, short-petioled, elliptic-oblong to linear-lanceolate. The roots are woody and aromatic. The inner part of the roots are white in color and the outer part is brown in color. The root has a pleasant odour with astringent taste.
Indian Sarsaparilla roots are mainly used to make beverages. An extract is prepared from its roots by means of steam distillation. It is then mixed with sugar or (palm sugar), water and citric acid proportionately to evolve a concentrate drink. Sugar is added, since to remove the astringent taste from it. These mixture acts as diaphoretic and also used as demulcent to relieve body pain. It keeps the body cool. Besides, Indian Sarsaparilla root is diuretic, as it tones up the urinary system and helps in preventing stone formation. It also controls tonsillitis.
It is also a component of several medicinal preparations in Ayurveda and administered in the form of powder, infusion or decoction as syrup.
local name: nannari
[image: the roots of Indian Sarsaparilla plant]Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Swiss chocolates now made in Surat
RELATED
SURAT: Move over the sugary gharis and ghevars! Surat will start dishing out Swiss chocolates too.
City-based Rajhans (Desai Jain) Group is setting up a Rs 500 crore chocolate factory in Kim on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. The Rs 2,000 crore real estate group has diversified into confectionery business by tying up with a leading chocolate maker from Switzerland to manufacture nearly 25 tonnes of chocolate bars and moulds.
To be sold under the brand name Schmitten and Hoppits, the chocolates will be available in the market by January. Schmitten will be in moulds and Hoppits which will be sold as bars. The group is setting up the factory sprawling on 1.5 lakh sq ft land.
The machinery and operating technology is imported from the UK, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The factory is the first of its kind in Gujarat and touted to be the third biggest in the country after Cadbury’s and Nestle’s .
"The Swiss chocolate maker with whom we have tied up is number one in Switzerland ," said Jayesh Desai, chairman of the group. Desai said the chocolates will be premium brands.
The Indian chocolate market is valued at around Rs 4,500 crore is likely to touch Rs 7,500 crore by 2015, according to Assocham. Cadbury commands the highest 70% share. Rajhans Group has also hired two top executives from Cadbury.
Shubhra Kallani, marketing head of Rajhans Nutriments, said, "We will launch our products in eight states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan , Karnataka, Delhi and West Bengal."
"Compared to other chocolates selling in the market, these will be costlier as it will be apremium product," she added. The plant in itself will be a tourist spot for those wanting to see how chocolates are made.
City-based Rajhans (Desai Jain) Group is setting up a Rs 500 crore chocolate factory in Kim on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. The Rs 2,000 crore real estate group has diversified into confectionery business by tying up with a leading chocolate maker from Switzerland to manufacture nearly 25 tonnes of chocolate bars and moulds.
To be sold under the brand name Schmitten and Hoppits, the chocolates will be available in the market by January. Schmitten will be in moulds and Hoppits which will be sold as bars. The group is setting up the factory sprawling on 1.5 lakh sq ft land.
The machinery and operating technology is imported from the UK, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The factory is the first of its kind in Gujarat and touted to be the third biggest in the country after Cadbury’s and Nestle’s .
"The Swiss chocolate maker with whom we have tied up is number one in Switzerland ," said Jayesh Desai, chairman of the group. Desai said the chocolates will be premium brands.
The Indian chocolate market is valued at around Rs 4,500 crore is likely to touch Rs 7,500 crore by 2015, according to Assocham. Cadbury commands the highest 70% share. Rajhans Group has also hired two top executives from Cadbury.
Shubhra Kallani, marketing head of Rajhans Nutriments, said, "We will launch our products in eight states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan , Karnataka, Delhi and West Bengal."
"Compared to other chocolates selling in the market, these will be costlier as it will be apremium product," she added. The plant in itself will be a tourist spot for those wanting to see how chocolates are made.
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