Food Processing Industry in India

Food Processing Industry

Food Processing Industry has enormous significance for India’s development for the vital linkages and synergies it supports between industry and agriculture – the two pillars of the economy. Food processing industries have a crucial role to play in providing nutritious food to the population, increasing the shelf life of the produce and also in the reduction of post-harvest losses. Another most important point in the food industry is that a substantial portion being rural based it has a very high employment potential with significantly lower investment.
Today processed food is considered an elitist item and is taxed heavily. It is more expensive than fresh food which is a paradox. Large scale processed food production and distribution to a one billion strong population will create the economies of scale and would reduce the costs of final delivery. The disease burden of the nation will reduce substantially if one can supply nutritious food to the masses since 60 percent of diseases are water borne and the 10 percent or more is due to malnutrition.