Indian Bakery Sector: Associations, Councils, and Trade Bodies

India being third largest producers of Bakery products, have numerous associations and forums for bakery related people to get associated with. These Associations take up issues of their interests and give suggestions or protest any unjustified proposal from government .They also help promoting products ,educating consumers , provide training and conduct s various seminars and workshop on related subject.

Prominent Food and Bakery Associations in India

• Indian Stainless Steel Development Association
• Fragrances and Flavours Association of India(FAFAI)
• All India Food Processors Association
• Poultry Processors Association
• All India Distillers Association
• Association Of Food Scientists & Technologies
• National Association of Bakery Industry
• Federation of Biscuit Manufacturers Association
• The Soyabean Processors Association of India
• The Seafood Exporters Association of India
• Indian Institute of Packaging
• Oil Technologists Association of India (Western Zone)
• Indian Biscuits Manufacturers Association
• Confederation of Indian Food Trade and Industry
• Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India
• Indian Confectionery Manufacturers Association
• Indian Dairy Association
• Indian Sugar Mills Association
• All India Bread Manufacturers Association ltd
• India Bakers Association of India
• Roller Flour Millers Federation of India
• All India Grain Exporter Association
• Wheat Product Promotion Society
• Society of Indian Bakers

Cocoaland - Malaysia-Bakery Manufacturers - A profile

Chocopie with marshmallow is popular product here in Delhi , India .You may get these products in malls , supermarket and even in big retail shops .Popularity of Pie shows that it has a popular demand here in India .



Chocopie brand is a Malaysian brand manufactured by Cocoaland Industry SDN .BHD-Darul Ehsan , Malaysia .Cocoaland products are available in countries like USA , India , Japan , Hong Kong ,Middle East and Australia.

Its major products are Chocolates , Cookies and Wafers ,Nuts , Candies and Gums,Snacks ,Soft Drinks and Jelly .

Major Brands of Cocoaland are Mums Bake ,Rotong ,Koko Jelly ,Dietian , LOT 100.
Got manufacturing base in Malaysia and China .

HQ :Lot 100, Rawang Integrated Industrial Park,48000 Rawang,Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
website : http://www.cocoaland.com

Kraft Food Cost Reduction Strategies

Kraft Foods Inc has initiated number of steps to reduce cost through procurement initiatives .
Few of them would be

• Leverage scale with reduced number of strategic suppliers across total spend .
• Expand global sourcing and low-cost country sourcing .
• Simplify material and product specifications while maintaining quality .
• Re-engineer processes to reduce inventory

CPO Ms Julia Brown gave details to the reporter s on cost reduction initiatives taken by Kraft Food Inc . She told that every spend category would be reviewed and supplier base consolidated . More of the items would be bought for the manufacturing through central buying team rather local buying .

Other cost reduction initiatives are

• Reducing its cash conversion cycle from 46 days in 2008 to 41 days by 2011 .
• Reducing overhead as a percentage of net revenue from 14% in 2008 to 12.5% in 2011 .
• Focus on category value chains, manufacturing platforms .
• Remove bottlenecks .
• Reduce waste .
• Optimize labor .
• Streamline inventory .
• Cover more than 30 category value chains across geographies over next two years

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Government has asked Major FMCG to import sugar

Bulk consumer of sugar like Coca- Cola , Pepsico , Nestle , Cadbury , Britannia , Amul , Dabur has been asked by government to source their sugar requirement from imports from overseas country . With festive season starting from the last week of September with Dussehra ,Deepawali festival scheduled in coming months .Government is taking all necessary steps to prevent sugar prices spiraling out of control . Already limits on stocks has been put in place . In addition to that companies are allowed to import raw sugar tax free till December 2010.

India is the largest consumer of sugar as well as second largest producer of sugar after Brazil in the world . Due to shortfall in rains this year sugar production is likely to fall by 15.0 million tonnes . This all have inflated the price in international sugar market as well .

Government authorities have already started importing sugar in view of the shortage.

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Australian Govt makes Folic acid compulsory for bread

Australian Govt has made Folic acid aadition to bread compulsory from this month asFolic acid has been shown to reduce the risk of babies being born with defects such as spina bifida.

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United Biscuit - A complete history

United Biscuits was founded in 1948 following the merger of two Scottish family businesses — McVitie & Price and MacFarlane Lang.
In 1960, United Biscuits added to its portfolio with the acquisition of Crawford's Biscuits and MacDonald's Biscuits. In 2000 UB was bought by Finalrealm, a consortium of investors, and reverted to private limited company status.A summary of our development since then is given below. (Unless otherwise stated, each represents an acquisition of 100%.)
1967 Meredith & Drew, a UK crisp manufacturer.
1968 Kenyon Son & Craven, a leading UK nut manufacturer.
1974 Keebler Company, a leading US cookie and cracker manufacturer, subsequently sold to a number of buyers in 1995.
1982 Terry's of York, the confectionery company, subsequently sold to Kraft Suchard in 1993.

1988 Ross Young's, a leader in the UK frozen food sector. 60% stake in United Biscuits China, with a further 30% stake bought in 1991.
1990 Verkade, a leading biscuit and confectionery company in the Netherlands.
1991 Investment in three leading European biscuit companies: Fazer Biscuits (Finland), Oxford Biscuits (Denmark) and Gyori Keksz (Hungary). Joint venture also established in Éire.
1993 The Smith's Snackfood Company, Australia's leading snackfood manufacturer incorporating a snacks business in Italy. Derwent Valley Foods, the UK owner of the Phileas Fogg snack brand. Further investment in Oxford Biscuits (Denmark) and Gyori Keksz (Hungary) taking investments to 100%.
1994 Further investment in Fazer Biscuits (Finland), taking the investment to 70%, San, a Polish biscuit manufacturer taking investment to 90%, and Nibb-It Snacks, a Dutch snackfood manufacturer1995 The Original Pretzel Company, Australia1997 Acquisition of the French biscuits business, Biscuiterie Nantaise (BN), from PepsiCo. Inc. in exchange for certain continental European snack operations and the sale to PepsiCo. Inc. of The Smiths Snackfood Company, Australia. UB receives a net consideration of £241 million.
1998 Acquisition of the Continental European Biscuit Business, Delacre, from the Campbell Soup Company for £125m. Delacre has operations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and exports to the USA. Meiji McVitie, UB buys out Meiji's 50% stake of the venture to form a new company, UB Japan Ltd.
1999 Merger of UB's Young's seafood business with Legal & General Ventures Bluecrest to create the largest seafood business in the UK. UB and LGV (and its associates) each hold 44% of equity of the business. Management and other finance providers will hold the balance.
1999 (September) Acquired certain biscuit operations from German confectionery company, Stollwerck. UB receives Stollerck's Hungarian biscuit business and appoints Stollwerck as its sales and distribution agent in Germany.
1999 (October) Binding agreement reached with HJ Heinz Company for the sale of UB's frozen and chilled food businesses (excluding chilled fish operation) for a price of £190 m payable on completion. Regulatory clearance granted 7th December.1999 (November) Sale of UB's Grimsby-based chilled fish business to Northern Foods. The operation supplies added-value seafood products to Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.2000 (April) Finalrealm acquires UB.2000 (May) Sale of UB Nordic A/S and UB Denmark A/S to Danone.

2000 (May) Sale of UB's TUC and Cheddars brands to Danone (Jacob's). Mini-Cheddars excluded from deal.2000 (June) Sale of UB Snack Foods SpA and UB Snack Foods GmbH to Danone. This comprises UB's Donauwörth factory in Germany and a commercial office in Italy.

2000 (July) Acquisition of Nabisco’s European, Middle East and North African businesses (EMENA).2000 (November) Sale of UB Malaysia and UB Singapore to Danone.2000 (November) Sale of UB Hungary to Danone.2001 (February) Sale of San, Poland to Danone.

2001 (March) Sale of 44% interest in Young’s Bluecrest Seafood Holdings Limited.2001 (May) Sale of Fazer, Finland to Danone.2002 (March) Completion of sale of United Biscuits (China) Limited and its subsidiaries to Nabisco.2003 (October) Closure of dry mix factory in Tunisia.

2004 (July) New subsidiary company of UBUK opened in Dublin, Ireland - UB Snackfoods Ireland Ltd.2004 (August) Acquisition of Triunfo Productos Alimentares, SA, Portugal

2004 (August) Sale of Benelux Snacks business to Roger & Roger2004 (September) Acquisition of Jacob's Biscuit Group from Danone2006 (February) Acquisition of the brands Nik Naks and Wheat Crunchies from Golden Wonder2006 (September) Completion of sale of UB Southern Europe to Kraft Foods Inc.

2006 (December) Sale of Business completed to The Blackstone Group and PAI

History of LU brands of cookies and biscuits

LU brand of biscuits are now synonomus with french delicacies .It has long history as the most popular french biscuit brands .LU has been recently associated with Kraft Foods Inc .Earlier to Kraft ,Danone were the owner of LU biscuit.
Here is a brief history to the world famous biscuit brand.
For more than 150 years, the LU brand (www.lubiscuits.com) has been synonymouswith some of the world's most delicious cookies. Founded in 1850, LU is one ofthe greatest success stories in the French food industry. Each LU biscuit is awork of art, capturing the elegant design and rich European taste people havecome to expect from LU. LU biscuits' devotion to art and design began in 1850when a French baker named Monsieur LeFevre married Mademoiselle Utile, andtheir blossoming love became a shared passion for baking exquisite biscuits.Each biscuit was considered a work of art, and like all great artists, theyproudly placed their initials, "LU," on each and every biscuit. The design ofthe brand's signature cookie, Le Petit Ecolier, was molded in chocolate fromthe image of "The Little School Boy" by renowned illustrator Firman Bouisset,furthering the brand's history of style and design. In 2007, LU joined KraftFoods and is one of the company's top-selling brands with products availablein 100 countries and revenues exceeding $1 billion globally.
Ref : Kraft Food

Britannia unveils 'Shubh Kaamnayein' range for Diwali

Assorted gift pack from Britannia Industries Ltd for Deepawali Festivities

Britannia unveils 'Shubh Kaamnayein' range for Diwali

A visit to a Biscuit Factory

A Day in a Biscuit Factory


Have you ever wondered what goes inside a biscuit factory and how do you get such delicious biscuit made. A visit to biscuit factory has been detailed below in brief so that ones get s an idea of biscuit manufacturing, process and people. Biscuit factory has it own ways, lingo and people who manage the production. I would tell you more about people who are directly involved in the production process or activities on the shop floor.

Premixing area

Operators checks the variety and weighs ingredient as per the recipes waits for mixers operators signals .Once he gets the signal , starts putting up all ingredients manually or in case system is automated he starts the discharge options. Automated additions could be flour , butter , sugar solution , milk , water etc . Food Additives which are in very small quantities are added manually. Pre mixing area have storage tanks, pumps, votators , sifter and in many cases dough truck tilters . Operators has to get the material arranged from the stores for the days production . In case of cracker varieties the preparation s starts as early as 18 – 20 hrs . Gets stocks for sugar , flour ,hvo and other ingredients .Does cleaning operations at the end of the shift .Sifts Flour , Ammonia and Sugar .

Mixing Area

Mixer Operators gets the Ingredients from pre mixing area, cleans the mixer and checks the timers setting on the mixer for mixing process. Gets following material for addition such as biscuit powder from biscuit grinding room and dough in case of any left out in earlier process . Mixing operators does the mixing in stages . Checks the dough consistency , temperature and forwards the dough in a dough truck to tilting device .Operator has to be careful about the quality of flour take certain corrective measures in case he does under mixing or over mixing .


Forming Area

Operator checks the variety of product whether it is a molding variety or cutting variety . Check the cutter or the molder as per variety of the biscuit. Changes the speed and pressure of the molding or cutting as required .Install accessories like milk spray or salt or sugar spray units if required . Adjust speed of forming units like laminator, gauge rolls . Changes conveyors if required. In case of change over from one variety to other he selects the moulder or the cutter and install it on the biscuit production line .Add flour dust to the flour duster in case of sticky dough . Checks the wetness of the cutting web .Drops deformed biscuits . Return scrap dough to the


Baking Area

Oven operators checks the variety and adjust the oven zones temperature , adjusts the dampers as per the requirement .Adjust burner setting as per temperature requirement .

Increase or decrease speed of the traveling oven band as per the requirement . Simultaneously instruct forming section operator to adjust the speed of the forming unit . Drops burnt biscuits . Checks the tracking of oven band, make a note of damaged band area . Important roles comes into picture in case of power failure when he has to get the biscuit trapped in the oven zone out with help of manual arrangement .This is very important as any delay by him can result in fire in the oven .Checks the safety sheets of the oven .Hence oven operator has big role in baking quality of the product .


Packing Area

Packing area can be most populated in case of semi – automatic packaging but for automated area one or two operators are sufficient per machine .Biscuits are fed into feeding chutes manually by feeder s . Packaging operators checks the date , labels and product setting on the packing machine . Checks the wrapper and adjust the setting of the machine . Adjust the speed of the packing machine as per incoming quantity of biscuit. Checks temperature of sealers to avoid any defective packaging .Does the change over of the packing machine as per the product. Then ensure that cartons are taped and then passed on to the finished good ware house.

All operators has been provided with pre formatted form to be filled in . Each section fills these form s to be submitted to the shift supervisors who then send it to the production manager who checks for the data , outputs , break down , wastage etc and log it on the ERP software .

Other functions

Store – Receives and inspect incoming material . Updates stock position, Store these material at predefined place .

Purchase – They are responsible for arranging material for production On request generated by production planning they release orders for vendors to deliver the material on time .

Production planning- Gets sales requirement from sales deptt . Plan production accordingly with taking view of raw material, plants availability, personnel and packing material .

Dispatch- Co ordinate with sales dept and dispatches material to the destination in time .Has to follow up with transporter for dispatches .

Quality team - Responsible for quality of the ingredients , packing material and standards of the process , product and keep monitoring on critical control points , Maintain documents for

Maintenance team - Responsible for break down maintenance and upkeep of the plant and machinery.

Hygiene team - Maintains the hygienic and cleanliness of the factory .

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Premier Foods and WRAP team up to tackle bread waste

A recent study conducted by UK govt highlights the fact that the major conntributor to food wastage in british household are bakery product . Around 14% of total food wastage has been bread . Reason for this can be attributed to

Pack size - larger pack size results in more wastages
Staling products get staled due to short shelf life
Improper storage practices
Shorter shelf life of the product.







Premier Foods and WRAP team up to tackle bread waste

Alveograph or Extensograph - An Important tool for bakers

Alveograph is an integral part of any bakery or flour miller .Its a must for bakeries and helps in inspecting flour for its strength .Alveograph is also known as extensometer by many . These machine was invented by M .Chopin Hence the name Chopin extensometer. Alveograph uses air pressure to inflate a thin sheet of dough . Simulating carbon dioxide gas which is present in the dough and is the reason for dough to stretch in process.Dough is allowed to inflate till it burst .The point at which the dough sheet burst is recorded and values calculated for the flour . These values are plotted and shown as graph through computer.
Following are the parameter which an Alveograph shows
P- Its the value which shows the amount of pressure withstood by the dough sheet before it burst.
L -Shows the maximum height attained by the bubble befor it collapsed or bursted.This shows the flexibility of the dough
P/L- Its the value obtained by pressure upon the height attained and this shows the strength of the flour.
G- The volume of the air entrapped in the bubble before bubble burst .This shows the flexibility of the dough .
W- Energy required to get the bubble inflated before it collapsed .This shows the strength of the flour .

Once all the parameter s are analysed then bakers selects the suitable product for the flour as per its characteristics . Normally these tests are done prior to production which saves time and energy of the operators with the right selection of flour .This also minimise the chances of the failure of the batch .

IFFCO - Bakery Manufacturer-A profile

International Food Stuff company ( IFFCO ) is one of the largest bakery manufacturer of bakery products in Gulf region . Established in year 1975 –Sharjah ,UAE ,from a food trading company it has become a big food manufacturing company having manufacturing facilities in various countries like Iran , Pakistan , Egypt , Malaysia and UAE . Its product are exported to nearly 70 countries . Major products of IFFCO are Edible oil , Bakery products ( Biscuits , pasta , cakes, frozen bakery ) , Ice creams , Snacks , flour , Poultry and Animal Feed s. Major Brands of IFFCO are Noor , Tiffany , Igloo , London Dairy , Khaleej Tiffany brands of bakery products are popular brand in Middle eastern countries .It has product range from , Plain glucose biscuit , Cream biscuits, Digestive ,Nice ,Cookies .Wafers are also popular category of Tiffany . HO - PO BOX 29220 , Sharjah , UAE .

Britannia Ups Its Stake in SFIC and AL Sallan Foods

Britannia s has taken two companies Strategic Food Intl CO , Dubai , UAE and Al Sallan Foods , Sohar , OMAN under its control. Declaring this MD Ms Vinita Bali told media that both Companies which were JV with Khimji Ramdas are now 100% subsidiary of Britannia Industries Ltd .Earlier it was 70-30% JV with KR group. Ms Bali said that this marked Britannia’s move to consolidate its position in that part of the globe.Both these companies have suffered losses . Already Operations have been consolidated at Sohar for maximum of the production on account of cost benefits having plant in Oman .SFIC ( Strategic Food Intl Co)-Dubai has problem on account of high cost of overhaeads and Ingredients .

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