A study on various tomato based products preferred by horeca sector in South India

Abstract

Urbanization, rising income levels, technology penetration, changing life styles are some of the driving forces for the growth of food service industry especially the HoReCa segment in India. Westernization of food consumption patterns has demanded for wide variety of processed foods. Among several food products, the usage of tomato in fresh form is very known by Indian households while an increased application of tomato based products in various culinary applications has become prominent. The present study focus on various tomato based products, brands preferred by HoReCa sector in their culinary applications. Purposive cum snowball sampling design is employed in the present study. The sample size of the study is 60. Among the tomato based products, the sector is majorly using chopped tomatoes followed by tomato paste. The monthly consumption requirement of tomato sauce exhibited wide variations i.e. from 20 kgs to more than 80 kgs per month and. The sector prefers plastic containers for tomato sauce packaging and tetra pack for tomato juice majorly due of their shelf-life and consumption safety. Tomato sauce and ketchup are majorly sourced from company distributors. The major tomato based brands preferred are Morton and Delmonte. Rich tomato sauce procured majorly from outside while others are prepared based on cuisine and customer requirement. The usage of tomato sauce is majorly used in snacks items followed by breakfast items in south and north Indian culinary applications while in Chinese and Italian culinary applications, the usage is prominent in noodles, manchuria, soup, rice, chicken, mutton and starters.