Do The Can-Can

New Products

Veg falafal kabab, seafood samosas, readymade burgers, biriyani, mirch ka salan, prawn pulao, yakhni pulao, kadhi pakoda, Malabar prawn curry, brinjal curry, moong dal halwa, badam halwa.

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Old habits, it seems, don’t die hard. Not for Rashmi Raisinghani, at least. The Mumbai-based celebrity manager had taken a stab at frozen food while living in the UK two years back. In India now, and clocking 16-hour workdays, the 26-year-old has little time to toss up extravagant meals. So what’s a girl to do when soul food is steaming spicy vegetable biriyani, shahi paneer and matar aloo? Well, how about a readymade, full-course, ‘heat-and-eat’ meal in eight straight minutes? “It’s the bridge between gorging on restaurant food and home-cooked meals. At least, it reduces the guilt of eating out,” says Rashmi. 

There’s a range of goodies at the store next door, all easily accessible and easy on the pocket. And it’s gotten a whole lot bigger than yesterday’s frozen para­nthas and boil-and-drink soups. The variety’s endless today, from vegetable falafal kabab to paneer kathi roll, vegetable pizza puff to veggie money bag, upma, poha to moong dal halwa. And these are just the quickie knick-knacks. If you’re in the mood to go the whole hog, there’s a lot more.

As Rohit Kha­itan, a Calcutta-based IT professional, asks, “Why waste time in the kitchen when you have full thalis that are so tasty and packaged so attractively?” His favourites: the packed idli-sambar combo, kadhi pakoda and rice or shahi paneer and jeera onion rice thalis. Over to one of the makers, Viren Joshi, MD of Ahmedabad-based Bom­baywalla Puranpoli Private Ltd: “Pro­duct quality is much better now, shelf life too. Store them at the prescribed temperature and you’re done. You can’t go wrong falling back on a diet pur­ely based on ready-to-eat foodstuff.”

Earlier perceptions of frozen food being stale are also changing. The best signs of this: mothers packing these as elaborate lunches for their school-going children and laying out platters of “as-good-as-restaurant” shami kebab or tandoori veg nuggets at home. Nakul Yadav, executive director of exotic foodstore Le Marche Retail Private Ltd in Delhi, feels convenience, variety and attractive packaging have all added to the appeal of these products. “There’s a 10-20 per cent increase in sales every year at our stores. The replication of taste from an original product is so seamless now, it often seems pointless to eat out.” He does concede, though, that it may not be as nutritious as freshly made food but, hey, even soldiers live on processed food most of the time.

Indeed, most dieticians say packed food never retains all the nutrients like freshly made dishes. As Divya Saxena, Delhi-based weight management consultant and dietician, puts it, “Processed food loses much of its nutritional value because of the way it has been pre-cooked, frozen or dried out. Much of the minerals and vitamins, healthy fats, phytochemicals and insoluble fibre are lost in the process. Some of the side-effects of a constant diet of this will be fatigue, severe headaches, nausea and intense stomach aches.” On the other side of the argument, if the other option is ordering junk food or even cooked food from the neighbourhood’s ‘free home delivery’, a spot of processed food may be okay. Nutritionist Jayshree Guha Thakurta says dhaba food repeatedly cooked in the same oil often turns toxic.

Maybe then, what’s important is choosing intelligently from among the range of products available. “Along with preservatives, there’s an addition of nutritional supplements to balance out the loss of natural nutrients during food processing. So for students and professionals, it may not be a bad idea if you pick the right ones,” agrees Jayshree. However, a note of caution here too. Poor transport, lack of proper cold chains, cheap packaging and the climatic conditions in India can cause microbial growth—which is poisonous. Stay safe and never buy packets that are bloated or dented. And always, always check the sell-by date.