Ready to Eat Foods (RTE) are convenience foods, enclosed in aluminium container or pouches that only need to be cut and heated before being served. Instant vegetables in retort pouches fall under this category and find application not only as home meal replacement in working class households but also in fast-food restaurants and multi cuisine food joints. These are handy meals for armed forces and paramilitary forces deployed in remote places. RTE food includes wide range of products viz. vegetarian/non- vegetarian, basic food/delectable desserts, south and north Indian items available from a specialty or multi cuisine restaurant & food joint only.
Ready To Eat, Shelf Stable, Retort Sterilized Foods are completely cooked foods packed in airtight containers, which could be preserved at room temperature for a long period of time without the necessity of freezing, cooling and drying. The thermally-processed retort pouch foods are waterproof, weatherproof and bug proof. The Shelf Life of Ready To Eat Foods is from 1 year to 5 years, depending on the type of packing materials and processing procedures.
India‘s Food Processing industry is one of the largest industries in the country - it is ranked fifth in terms of production, consumption, export and expected growth. The industry employs 1.6 million workers directly. Now the time is to provide better food processing & marketing infrastructure for Indian industries to serve good quality & safest processed food like READY TO EAT (RTE) food, keeping in mind the changing tastes and lifestyle of the Indian demography.
The Indian food processing market was worth INR 24,665 Billion in 2018. Looking forward, the market is projected to reach INR 50,571 Billion by 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.4% during 2019-2024. Rising household incomes, urbanization and the growth of organized retail are currently some of the major drivers of this market. Food processing is a large sector that covers activities such as agriculture, horticulture, plantation, animal husbandry and fisheries.
Few Indian major players are as under:
· A D F Foods Ltd.
· Dabur Foods Ltd.
· Gits Food Products Pvt. Ltd.
· Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd.
· Haldiram Products Pvt. Ltd.
· Hatsun Agro Products Ltd.
· Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
· I T C Ltd.