Tech-fuelled freshness: The future of the frozen food industry (2024)

India’s frozen food industry has registered a significant growth in recent years but it still is in a nascent stage. The use of technology is propelling this growth, now at 13-14% every year, and will help the industry achieve its potential.

“Changing consumer preferences play a significant role in driving the demand for frozen foods,” says Haresh Karamchandani, MD & Group CEO, HyFun Foods. “Urbanisation and shifting lifestyles have led to an increased emphasis on convenience and nutrition among consumers, particularly the younger demographic and working individuals. This shift has created a burgeoning market for frozen foods, which offer both convenience and nutritional benefits, aligning with the evolving dietary habits of urban consumers.”

Modern freezing techniques is one such technology. It not only preserves the quality and freshness of food but also locks in essential nutrients, ensuring that consumers receive products with high nutritional value. Advanced freezing technology also plays a critical role in fighting the problem of food wastage.

“By freezing perishable items, the industry effectively extends their shelf life, reducing wastage and optimising the utilisation of agricultural resources,” says Karamchandani.

Mohit Marwaha, AVP, Yummiez, Godrej Tyson Foods, says the frozen food industry has undergone a significant transformation, shedding its niche image and blossoming into a mainstream food source.

“A shining example of this growth is the frozen ready-to-cook segment, currently a sizable Rs 3,500 crore category with a 15% year-on-year growth, evidently highlighting the increasing demand for convenient and flavourful meal solutions. Today, it boasts a wide range of products catering to the diverse palates and fast-paced lives of modern India. The frozen foods category in India has a penetration rate of less than 5%, indicating ample room for expansion,” adds Marwaha.

Advanced freezing & packaging techniques
Stakeholders say that processors today use a range of freezing technologies. Individual quick freezing (IQF) is the most common for extracting heat from products or food. IQF freezes individual pieces and maintains its original identity and freshness. It offers a range of benefits, including preserving the texture, colour and nutritional value of foods.

Packaging also plays a vital part in this sector. “One of the advancements in the food sector is flexible packaging. Multiple-layered laminated sheets comprising a single or a mix of substrates, such as plastic, paper or aluminium foils, are used in flexible packaging. Flexible packaging has a variety of roles in keeping goods secure, increasing shelf life, preventing contamination, assuring safe storage, and maintaining customer accessibility,” says Karamchandani.

Frozen food also plays an important role in addressing barriers to nutrition. Easy-to-follow on-packaging instructions help consumers prepare meals with minimum equipment, cooking skills or time, and still enjoy foods with diverse cultural references.

“Frozen food is critical to fighting food waste due to its extended shelf-life and proportioned servings that help consumers prepare just the amount of food they plan by following instructions printed by the manufacturer. These instructions are printed after an in-depth study conducted by manufacturers,” says Karamchandani.

Advent of smart technology
“Another such technological advancement is freezer on wheels — where advanced formulations of eutectic mixtures are used to maintain the vehicle’s product chamber temperature at desired degrees for longer periods, without using an evaporator unit or a unit run on diesel. In such cases, the panels get frozen with electricity and can absorb the product heat for hours altogether, until the next recharge is needed, almost like mobile phone batteries.”

Stakeholders say that the integration of smart technology and data analytics into the supply chain is revolutionising the frozen food sector. With the advent of AI and smart manufacturing, there are several fronts in the supply chain where newer technology and data analytics have contributed significantly. These include fully GPS-tracked vehicles which would not only carry out the optimisation of the routes taken by drivers but also track real-time data on product temperature, which is critical to the frozen food industry from both sensory as well as food safety standpoints.

Karamchandani says that smart technology, such as IoT devices and sensors, provides real-time tracking and monitoring of frozen food products throughout the supply chain. This enhanced visibility allows companies to monitor temperature, humidity and other critical conditions, ensuring that products are kept at optimal conditions from production to delivery. This optimisation of inventory levels reduces waste and ensures the right amount of product is available at the right time.

“With the increasing importance of food safety regulations, smart technology provides enhanced traceability of products through blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, creating an immutable record of a product’s journey through the supply chain. Furthermore, data analytics helps companies measure and reduce their environmental footprint by optimising supply chain processes, reducing waste, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions,” adds Karamchandani.