Kahini Chakraborty – Mumbai
Novozymes, a US$ two billion Danish biotech company, is focusing on expanding its enzymes base in the food and beverage industry in India. The company is increasingly looking at developing region specific applications to cater to the changing food and dietary habits of Indian consumers.
Speaking exclusively to Food & Hospitality World, G S Krishnan, regional president, Novozymes South Asia said, “With a strong focus on enzyme production, we are committed to changing the foundations of our industrial system for the better by using industrial biotechnology. We have been in India for the last three decades. Our priority is on building local innovations, for example, we have developed certain applications with our existing enzymes to retain the freshness of rotis and naans. Apart from building local region specific applications, we also have plans for global innovations. For instance, constant heating of oil is harmful for health, which globally is of utmost concern. Hence our company is developing enzymes to address this issue. We work closely with academic institutes as well as industry partners.”
With the changing demographics and consumption patterns of food in India, Krishnan opined, “The middle class population is growing and there is demand for quality and nutritious processed food and ready-to-eat meals. This is where biotechnology can play a major role in providing better food development, better shelf life and food extraction, in turn giving consumers quality food.”
When asked about the challenges in the segment, he opined, “The Food and Safety Authority of India has an ambition for the last two-three years to make the regulation in line with national standards. There is a lot of ambition and ambiguity coupled with delay in approval process. Unless this issue is not fixed it is going to hamper the food production development in the India market. With the increasing demand for ready to eat and processed food, innovation companies like ours need faster regulatory approvals for our solutions. Today we involve academic institutions, industry partners but ultimately if the regulatory approval process is delayed, production cannot be launched in the market.”