MALLS VS INTERNET "CONSUMERISM"-NEW STRATEGIES

The fast growing On-line business volumes world over seems to be rattling the traditional retailers as most consumer products are delivered to house holds at costs significantly less than that charged by the conventional merchandising system. One of the reasons attributed to this distortion is that items sold through the Internet are not often taxed, though this cannot explain fully such discrepancies. According to some projections, On-line retail business is estimated at $ 573 billion, not considered insignificant. Evolution of retail business from small "mom and pop" stores into huge Malls of today manifests the transformation of the society from a thrifty era into a high spending phase where consumers have unlimited opportunities to spend money whether own or borrowed on a multitude of choices that can enrich the quality of life. Lately many Malls built investing heavily to tap the growing consumer culture are finding that they are being threatened by the On-line business practices and to sustain them selves these modern retail outfits are trying to "invent" new ways to "retain and attract" more customers. Here is a commentary on this new phenomenon.   

"Just about every mall owner in America is looking for ways to compete with the Internet. R. J. Milligan, a real estate analyst for Raymond James, said that developers were slowly adding more service-oriented elements to malls — for instance, dividing a closed Sears anchor store into multiple cafes. But Glimcher is pushing the envelope even further than the standard model of restaurants and expanded food courts, he said, with tenants like Make Meaning (a membership store where people make crafts, cakes and other things) and Drybar (a salon with no scissors, just stylists with blow-dryers). "They've done a good job of getting the right tenants in there," Mr. Milligan said.Scottsdale shoppers can have their hair blown into beachy waves at Drybar, create picture frames at Make Meaning, try a tree pose at Blissful Yoga and grab a kale salad at True Food Kitchen before going to a movie, where they can have drinks and snacks delivered to their reserved seats. They can also take advantage of in-person-only opportunities at standard retailers, like the so-called booty cam at Industrie Denim, a jeans store, that lets women study their rear view. A Restoration Hardware scheduled to open soon will offer fresh flowers and cups of tea for sale. "We want to be a place that people go to frequently, more than one time a week," said Mr. Glimcher, so the emphasis is on classes and other hands-on experiences".

Whether Internet retailing is good or bad is another matter but still considering the on set of serious health related physical and mental down turn of populations in many wealthy countries due to sedentary life style, On-line buying is definitely a disadvantage as it is a temptation to get what one wants sitting at home with no chance of any significant physical activity. However On-line retailing is not amenable to many activities, especially those requiring personal care and attention and this is a factor that drives many Malls to change their lease profile to include more and more specialty food centers, personal care facilities, high end services, training centers for tailoring, food preparations and other skilled activities etc so that customers will have to visit them more and more often. With most Malls offering entertainment facilities and low end food courts there is already a trend emerging where more people come to Malls for this experience than for any purchase. If high end restaurants and shop outlets are given more importance, Mall attendance is bound to improve dramatically.

V.H.POTTY
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RICE FOR DIABETICS?-PROBABLY POSSIBLE!

Consumption of rice by those suffering from diabetes is discouraged by physicians because of its ability to get digested fast to release glucose which will increase the blood sugar immediately after ingestion beyond recommended levels. Traditionally diabetic patients were dependent more on wheat based diets which have marginally lower Glycemic Index (GI) value compared to rice. Those habituated with rice during their life time have difficulties in changing over to other grains and therefore any developmental activity that will make rice compatible with diabetes is a welcome news. After all more than 50% of the world population consume rice as a staple food and hence such a development will have great relevance. This is what is being  attempted in International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Manila, Philippines in collaboration with other institutions engaged in rice research. According to the results already available from the study, there are many varieties of rice which have low GI, as low as 45 and those who want to have protection from diabetes can use low GI rice varieties while others with Type II diabetes can manage the disease better with such varieties. It is interesting to read the findings of the group as contained in the following report.   

"The study found that the GI of rice ranges from a low of 48 to a high of 92, with an average of 64. The research team from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Food Futures Flagship also identified the key gene that determines the GI of rice, an important achievement that offers rice breeders the opportunity to develop varieties with different GI levels to meet consumer needs. Futuredevelopment of low-GI rice would also enable food manufacturers to develop new, low-GI food products based on rice. Dr. Melissa Fitzgerald, who led the IRRI team, said that GI is a measure of the relative ability of carbohydrates in foods to raise blood sugar levels after eating. "Understanding that different types of rice have different GI values allows rice consumers to make informed choices about the sort of rice they want to eat," she said. "Rice varieties such as India's most widely grown rice variety, Swarna, have a low GI and varieties such as Doongara from Australia and Basmati have a medium GI." Dr. Tony Bird, CSIRO Food Futures Flagship researcher, said that low-GI diets offer a range of health benefits: "Low-GI diets can reduce the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, and are also useful for helping diabetics better manage their condition. "This is good news for diabetics and people at risk of diabetes who are trying to control their condition through diet, as it means they can select the right rice to help maintain a healthy, low-GI diet," he added.Low-GI foods are those measured 55 and less, medium-GI foods are those measured between 56 and 69, while high-GI foods measure 70 and above.When food is measured to have a high GI, it means it is easily digested and absorbed by the body, which often results in fluctuations in blood sugar levels that can increase the chances of getting diabetes, and make management of type 2 diabetes difficult".

While theoretically it is an excellent study what is not realized is that there are only a few recognized brands in rice in the market while vast majority of them are sold loose in many countries with no way of identifying the variety and it is next to impossible to make any meaningful selection by the consumers at the market place. GI as a measure of assessing the anti-diabetic credentials of food is fraught with many practical difficulties. For example same rice variety can have varying GI values depending on the location it is produced, type of cooking it has undergone, the age of the rice, amount of water used for cooking, etc and unless more work is done to sort out these discrepancies there is no way consumer can rely on the published GI figures as a guide for evolving suitable diets. Of course for ready to eat foods with GI values declared on the label may have a meaning as they do not undergo any further cooking before consumption. Reading more carefully the above report, one gets the impression that it seems to be an attempt to genetically modify rice varieties to make changes at the gene level to impart low GI characteristics. Whether consumers will accept such GM varieties even with the low GI values remains to be seen.  

V.H.POTTY
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FOOD SAFETY DEVELOPMENTS-COLD PLASMA, A POTENTIAL DECONTAMINANT

By far the most critical safety problem being faced by the consumers in many advanced countries is food poisoning caused by pathogenic bacteria like virulent E,coli species, Salmonella and listeria. The products getting contaminated include meat, vegetables, dry fruits, nuts, poultry products etc and fatalities vary in different episodes. In Europe the fenugreek sprout contamination with Listeria claimed several lives before even it is identified and source of supply traced. It is ironical that these deadly infections are more or less confined to rich countries where the safety standards are very stringent and the vigilance infrastructure is most modern. One interesting fact that emerges from a close scrutiny of food safety episodes is that almost all of them involved cold foods which cannot be heat treated because of their vulnerability to significant quality changes not accepted easily by the consumers. Paradoxically one of the most effective technological tools available to "cold sterilize" such foods, gamma radiation is not availed off by the industry due to nonsensical labeling rigidity on the part of the safety authorities. Another alternate option that may soon be available to the processors is the cold plasma technology which is undergoing tests to establish its technical feasibility vis-a-vis food sanitization. The claims being made by the scientific group that is pioneering the development are contained in the report below.  

"May was a rough month for fresh produce. Alfalfa sprouts, bagged salads, and diced onions were recalled because of possible listeria contamination, while baby spinach and papayas were recalled because of possible salmonella contamination. It's enough to make one scout for something new in food safety systems. And Brendan Niemira is working on something. Niemira, lead scientist at the USDA's Food Safety and Intervention Technologies Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pa., has been studying cold plasma for nearly a decade. The process uses electricity and a gas — such as oxygen — to deactivate contaminating microbes on meats, poultry, fruits, and vegetables. Niemira and his colleague Joe Sites have treated a variety of foods — including almonds, apples, cantaloupe, lettuce and tomatoes — with cold plasma and produced multi-log reductions of E. coli O157:H7, salmonella and listeria. While cold plasma already is used to clean electronics, bond plastics in manufacturing and bind dye to fibers in textile production, its potential remains untapped in the food industry. "Anytime a technology is being developed, it's only going to be used in the industry if it shows some significant advantages," Niemira said. "Cold plasma is a waterless sanitizing process with no chemical inputs, so it's got some attractive points. The big key right now is to develop the technology so that it gives a solid level of sanitizing antimicrobial effects without unwanted side effects. That's the kind of thing that might lead an interested party to petition the FDA." Niemira said that in cold plasma trials with apples and almonds there were no changes in the product's appearance. Another advantage, he said, is the level of efficacy. While most chlorine rinses will give one or two logs of surface sanitization, Niemira said cold plasma systems have been shown to give three or four logs in trials".

As the development has yet to come out of the laboratory of the scientists concerned, it may be quite some time before technological facilities are designed and conditions standardized on a commercial scale. The fact that cold plasma sterilization has already become an industry standard for sanitizing electronic goods and bond plastics and may get accepted, to start with, for sterilization of food machinery surface, conveyor belts etc in the food industry. As multi log reduction in pathogens has been demonstrated using cold plasma, its efficacy or reliability may not be questioned. The present sanitization procedures use high volumes of water, besides chemicals like chlorine even to get a 2 log reduction of pathogens and there fore food industry is likely to accept the new technology as and when it is ready for commercial level operation. Of course investment cost and the recurring expense in using the technology may eventually determine its fate.  

V.H.POTTY

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CONSUMER PERCEPTION ON SERVING SIZE-BRAIN AND GEOMETRY

One of the largest marketing strategies of this century has been to down size the contents of a food package without the consumer ever aware of the same. If a standard package of potato chips containing 200 gm of product is converted into a newly designed packaging pouch with 20 gm less chips it is unlikely that any busy bee consumer will ever notice it. Added to this confusion if the contents are declared with odd weight parameters, the chances of the consumer finding out are still less. To day most food manufacturers world over have adopted this strategy very successfully with their food packs containing about 15-20% less products compared to that two years ago and the price line is maintained to preserve the image of the industry as one beating inflation! Computer design of packages is a rewarding business because the potential for cheating the human brain is enormous. According to knowledgeable psychologists human brain is supposed to be weak in geometry incapable of assessing sizes of containers and the contents held by them. If this is so can there be a solution that can remedy the situation? Probably no because food consumers invariably make mechanical decisions regarding purchases without paying much attention to the label declaration where, at least in the US most manufacturers include the price per unit weight for easy comparison of prices of different competitors. Here is an interesting expose' on the subject of gullibility of human brain.    

"Recently, Pierre Chandon, a French marketing professor and visiting Harvard Business School scholar, decided to test the idea that consumers know what's best for them. He asked 294 people to estimate — using photos of a 6.5-ounce bottle (the standard for decades), a 12-ounce can or a 12-ounce cup as benchmarks — how much liquid was in a range of cups, starting at 12 ounces all the way up to a 50-ounce "Double Gulp." While it sounds simple, respondents consistently guessed wrong, assuming that the larger cups held about 20 percent to 40 percent less liquid than they actually did. Dozens of other studies, using jelly beans, popcorn, ice cream and alcoholic drinks, have also shown that consumers can't be depended on to perceive serving sizes accurately. The reason comes down to the fact that the human brain has a surprisingly tough time with geometry and often can't accurately gauge when an object has doubled or even tripled in size. It's even trickier when the object is a wide-mouth cup, larger on the top than the bottom. "We tend to underestimate the increase in the size of any object," said Professor Chandon, director of the Insead Social Science Research Center in Paris. "When you double the size of something, it really looks just 50 to 70 percent bigger, not twice as big."

In India there was a time when manufacturers were allowed to market only in certain sizes stipulated under weights and measures regulations but this was relaxed with the provision that odd sizes can be offered after declaring in small print on the label that it is not a standard size! The result is that practically all manufacturers started packing consumer products in odd sizes, volumes and measures putting the buyers in great disadvantage. Fortunately this policy is now being reversed but there is still no provision for printing rate per unit which ought to have been insisted upon. This human weakness is the basis of policy decisions by some governments in limiting sale of high sugar beverages to less than a certain size to discourage indiscriminate consumption of such high energy products which have the potential to cause over weight and obesity. Here is a basis for putting reasonable restrictions on the industry so that the perceived brain inadequacy to select what is really required, is addressed.  

V.H.POTTY
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FOOD BORN PATHOGENS-NEW TOOL TO DETECT THE SOURCE

Human efforts in protecting foods from the predatory microbiological pathogens is an ongoing fight ever since the dawn of civilization and the fact that there are still many pathogens lurking around without getting annihilated speaks volume about their sagacity, perseverance and adaptability. In spite of most sophisticated detection technologies and space age electronic instruments to track them, pathogens seem to be one step ahead of humans in infecting foods and spreading diseases. Whether it is meat contamination with Salmonella or other food poisoning out breaks, the experience has shown that it requires long time in tracing the source of contamination and take ameliorative actions. Precious human lives can be saved if the time lapse between detection and tracing is shortened. This seems to the be aim of efforts by a new public-private collaborative partnership that has been recently launched where genomic sequences of 100,000 food associated bacterial species are sought to be mapped over a five year period that is expected to help identifying the type of contamination immediately once it is detected. Here are further details of this public data base creating program that will allow food safety officials access the data freely on line.

"The Food and Drug Administration is teaming up with the University of California, Davis to pinpoint the genetic codes of 100,000 types of lethal food-borne bacteria so the agency can more quickly stop deadly contamination outbreaks. A batch of food-safety incidents have hit the U.S. recently. Last year, 25 people died from listeria contamination in Colorado-grown cantaloupes. About 100 people were sickened earlier this year due to salmonella tied to raw tuna in sushi. The FDA will collaborate with the university, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chemical analysis/engineering company Agilent Technologies Inc.,A -1.03% of Santa Clara, Calif., to sequence the genomes of the bacterial types and subtypes. They then will post the complex genetic codes in a public database maintained by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Biotechnology Information. Steven Musser, director of the FDA's office of regulatory science for food safety, said the novel venture will be akin to the DNA information compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for investigating crimes. "Right now, we spend a lot of time after an outbreak trying to figure out what country is it from, and how is it spreading," said Dr. Musser. He said such gene sequencing could have been helpful in the investigating this year's salmonella outbreak in tuna, which originated from a plant in India, the FDA concluded after investigating. "If you don't have a DNA database for these bacteria, you're working largely blind," said Paul Zavitsanos, Agilent's world-wide food-safety manager. "You've got to know what variant of bacteria you're dealing with." So, in the case of the tuna in sushi, Mr. Zavitsanos said it would be possible, with such a database, to know quickly that the salmonella variant causing illnesses came from fish and "you'd probably know geographically where it was centered on the planet." Armed with that information, he said, federal authorities could quickly shut down ports of entry for that type of fish and minimize the spread of illness. "If we had this genetic sequence already, we could know immediately that the salmonella probably came from India, and we could have responded much more quickly," said Dr. Musser. In that instance, it took nearly two months for the agency to confirm that sushi was to blame in the outbreak that is believed to have begun in February. He said having this extensive pathogen database also will speed up the process through which the CDC confirms that illnesses are linked, and that an outbreak is even taking place. The FDA said the new database can lead to tests that have the potential to significantly reduce the typical public-health response time in outbreaks of food-borne illness to days instead of weeks. The venture, which will be termed The 100K Genome Project, will be a five-year effort to discern the genetic codes of subtypes of important pathogens like salmonella, listeria and E. coli, all responsible for widespread outbreaks from a range of food products in recent years. The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, which inspects meat in the U.S., also will cooperate in the effort. The actual sequencing will occur largely at a newly formed genome sequencing facility at UC Davis".

The free database that will be set up at the University of California, Davis, will enable scientists to pinpoint not only what food carries the bacteria responsible for a given outbreak but also what country it came from. Such outbreaks generally take weeks to solve but the new database after it is created, is expected to reduce that to a matter of a few days. So far scientists have been able to identify as many as 3,000 sequences out of which only about 1,000 are related to food. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US has the largest such database but the gene maps it contains are only partial, not enough to determine which food the illness came from or its geographic origin. Cataloging gene codes is time-consuming and expensive. For example Salmonella alone has about 2,700 different strains, almost three times as many as all the sequences for food-borne bacteria that have been cataloged to date. When the project is completed in 5 years time, it may hopefully herald a new era for human beings to live without any serious fear of food borne infection dangers lurking among them.

V.H.POTTY
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FROM IT TO AGRICULTURE-NEW PRIVATE INITIATIVES

In the Indian context it was once asked why no established business houses like Ambanis, Tatas, Birlas, Mundhras and other leading industrialists were not taking any interest in investing in food processing sector which was dominated by transnational companies or their surrogates like Lever, Nestle, Britannia, etc. True that in spite of the presence of these global giants, the small and micro enterprises were still accounting for large volume of processed foods marketed in the country. Probably one of the main reasons could be the relatively high risk involved in dealing with perishable foods compounded by traditional food habits in Indian population, vast majority of whom shun processed foods, preferring to cook at home which is much cheaper and affordable. How ever this trend seems to be changing and entry of some of these domestic players more recently in food retailing augurs well for the country. How far they will be able to sustain in the market, outliving the vibrant Mom & Pop shops controlling more than 95% of the retail market and whether they will ever achieve backward integration with farmers of the country remains to be seen. It is in this context one has to look at the attempts by a few upstarts to establish agri-business which if successful can be a fore runner of more such efforts for lateral entry into food business. Here is the story of a successful IT entrepreneur with some vision to try his managerial and entrepreneurial acumen to establish himself as a significant player in food area. 

"To begin with, the company has already invested about Rs 20 crore in INI Farms, involved in pomegranate plantations on over 1,000 acres across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The project involves doubling productivity and increasing the export content from 40 per cent of the total production now to over 70 per cent with the help of modern farming and post-harvest technologies. The idea is to create a pomegranate brand. "There are huge opportunities in agriculture and health care. Nobody has positioned these sectors as an exciting opportunity when it comes to business, even though the margins are as high as 45-70 per cent. If two or three people start glamorising the industry over the next two-three years, we'll be able to look at scale and brand building for such sectors," he adds. Screwvala is also looking at opportunities in rural health care, a sunshine industry that remains neglected. "That's the opportunity. Chances are you are going to be the only guy in this business. It's true there is a shortage of qualified doctors, but basic amenities in health care like pathology labs don't need MBBS doctors," he says. The second part of his dream project, for which he has himself committed Rs 250 crore over the next five years, is even more ambitious. His foundation called Share has finalised a blueprint to "improve the livelihood and empower people" in seven villages of Maharashtra, covering a million people across eight talukas and five districts. "Our idea is not to donate money but to help the villagers become independent enough to earn their livelihood. We want to have an exit strategy where we help them for the first two years by giving them enough push. Then, they take it over themselves," he adds.

What is striking here is the love and affinity shown by this investor for agriculture and health care after understanding the peculiar situation that prevails in these areas in India. The fact that he is committing a substantial amount of his own money to further his ambition speaks volume about his sincerity and missionary zeal. It is amazing that he has zeroed in on Pomegranate cultivation which has tremendous potential to be a health food in the coming years due to its value as a source of highly active antioxidants. There is a similar parallel in Amla cultivation in Maharashtra by Jain Irrigation of Jalgaon which has revolutionized the production of Indian Gooseberry, one of the much sought after health fruits with thousands of years of history and heritage behind it, beyond recognition. India needs such missionary zeal from local players with resources and vision to change the agriculture and horticulture scenario in the country.

V.H.POTTY
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PROGRESSIVE SALT REDUCTION IN FOODS-TRICKING THE CONSUMER

Salt is considered a "poison" according to many health pundits and left to them selves probably they would have banished this palate tickling food ingredient from this plant long ago! But every one does not contribute to this 'hair raising" threat posed by salt as claimed by the experts citing many reasons for taking such an apprehensive view. Though salt intake 1000 years ago was reported to be hardly 0.5 gm per capita per day, to day it has ballooned into more than 8-10 gm a day and hence the red flag being raised against salt. There are many studies linking salt to a plethora of diseases like CVD, hypertension, kidney ailments etc, but the jury is still out regarding a final conclusion, most evidence being only circumstantial and based on animal studies. Different countries are trying out many strategies to persuade the food processing industry to cut down salt levels in their products but the impact is not considered very significant so far. There appears to be considerable reluctance on the part of many governments to put in place mandatory regulations that would force the industry to come up with products with lesser salt. Psychologists, knowledgeable about human mind feel that salt reduction can be achieved if the industry adopts a strategy to reduce salt slowly over a period of time without the consumer ever knowing about it. It appears human palate cannot perceive small changes in levels of salt up to a minimum limit beyond which they may react negatively. Probably this offers a "painless" way of salt reduction in processed foods.    

"Another widely used option to reduce levels of salt, but one which is generally not advertised to consumers, is the use of a gradual reduction of salt (stealth). This approach is being applauded by organizations, such as the UK Food Standards Agency and World Action on Salt and Health (WASH). Using this approach, consumers' palates will adapt to the lower level of salt, as the salt is very gradually reduced. This approach will depend on brand loyalty, ensuring that consumers do not switch to brands containing higher levels; thus, an industry wide approach would be required for some products. The rate by which to reduce salt is uncertain. Many companies have successfully used a stepwise reduction rate of 5%, but the specific approach will be dependent on food type and initial salt level (products with higher initial salt content are likely to achieve higher reduction levels)". 

This salt reduction strategy already being utilized by some in the food industry involves only gradual reduction but without actually replacing the sodium with anything else, unlike many others trying to partially substitute salt with non-sodium salty compounds that will reduce the sodium load on the body. How ever the results so far has been not very dramatic and this strategy can work only in certain cases, that too up to a limited extent. Ultimately a level of salt reduction will be met whereby a loss in overall flavor will be perceived by the consumer.  This poses a problem, as an apparent change in flavor by the consumer runs the risk of failure to repurchase the food item.  Generally food manufacturers, especially those owning reputed brand names, are unwilling to utilize a strategy that will negatively impact the taste and flavor of the product.  Therefore, extensive analysis of the effect of the salt reduction on sensory acceptability is vital.  Additionally, removing sodium without a replacement could negatively impact the product if salt plays a functional role such as microbiological, texture, water-retention etc. In a fiercely competitive market, unless every player go by the commonly accepted rule for limiting salt based on a time schedule, there will always be black sheep violating such understanding for reaping temporary benefits. That is where an international or national policy for compulsory salt reduction, in consultation with the industry, has the advantage providing a level playing field to all.

V.H.POTTY
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