Mumbai, June 4 - India's best known dairy brand, Amul, recently started selling ice creams enriched with benign bacteria, opening the floodgates for the spread of 'probiotic' nutritional foods in India, industry experts said.
A clutch of its competitors are also lining up product launches in the segment as a means of expanding market share as well as tapping into a generation looking for novel ideas in dietary supplements, they said.
"Though awareness is very low right now, we hope to reach our targets as people are increasingly becoming health conscious," R.S. Sodhi, chief general manager of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., which owns Amul, told Reuters.
Amul hopes its 'probiotic wellness icecreams' to help increase its 37 percent market share in India's ice-cream market by 10 percentage points.
The company is also test-marketing a microbe-boosted lassi, or yoghurt drink, in Ahmedabad city. Its nationwide launch should help it raise Amul's share in the segment by 20 percentage points, Sodhi said.
Probiotics involve the use of microbes beneficial to humans in enriching food. Such dairy products can help improve digestion, build disease resistance and fight against allergic reactions, a trade body official said.
Probiotics could give a fillip to the growth of milk products market in India, Animesh Banerjee, president of Indian Dairy Association, said.
Milk production was growing at 3.5-4 percent a year, value added products were growing at 15 percent, but probiotic products were expected to grow faster than 15 percent, he said.
"It is a fantastic market," Banerjee said. "All major players in this industry are trying to hit this segment as it is growing at a fast pace."
Though data for the nascent segment's growth in India are not available, a related segment, yoghurt and sour milk, grew sales at 14 percent in 2006, a survey by Euromonitor International showed.
The survey also predicted this related segment to grow at 10 percent in the coming years.
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Yakult-Danone India Ltd., an equal joint venture between French Groupe Danone and Japan's Yakult Honsha Co. Ltd. has invested 1.36 billion rupees to set up a unit in Rai, Sonepat to manufacture the health drink, Kiyoshi Oike, managing director of the company said in an e-mail.
The plant, which will be completed by the end of 2007, will have a production capacity of 1 million bottles a day, in a phased manner, he said.
IDA's Banerjee said many top brands in India could have their probiotic range soon, but companies were tight-lipped about their intentions.
"We keep looking at new products and opportunities all the time. But, at this stage I'll save my comments," said Anupam Datta, head of dairy business of Britannia Milkman.
Scientists, in the meantime, are developing bacterial cultures that could enhance the health properties of food items.
Food biotechnologists say "good bacterias" can be helpful in preserving food and also in helping AIDS patients strengthen their immunity.
"Interestingly, this type of culture has its own capability of producing enzymes. It helps in milk digestion and prevents diarrhoea," Utpal Raichowdhary, food biotechnologist and professor with Jadhavpur University in Kolkata city, said.
His team is concocting a culture that will help ease digestion of red meat. It is also working on bio-preservatives to prevent spoilage of food.