MUMBAI, July 24 --

- Frost Sullivan’s Food Beverage Focus 2009 Annual Executive
MindXchange on Biotechnology Applications in the Food Beverage and Dietary
Supplements Sector

The Indian food processing industry has seen some spectacular product
developments such as probiotic fortified yoghurt, buttermilk, omega fortified
health drinks and baby foods. A lot more has to be achieved through cutting edge
RD in the field of biotechnology resulting in innovative food and beverage
products with improved functional and health benefits.

Production of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), probiotics, and enzymes are
some of the key commercialized biotechnology applications in India. In India,
consumer awareness about these new age functional ingredients and their health
benefits is still low: a key challenge for this industry. Additionally, lack of
defined regulations regarding usage of such products or guidelines on health
claims in India is a growth restraining factor.

According to a Frost Sullivan study, key PUFA’s used in food and
beverage (FB) are Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids; however, in India the focus
and marketing effort is towards promoting Omega-3 in foods compared to Omega-6:
the Indian diet generally contains 5 to 20 times more Omega-6 than Omega-3
PUFA’s. Globally, the US is the largest manufacturer as well as the
largest end-user market for PUFA followed by Asia and Europe. The total Indian
market revenues for Omega-3 PUFA for food and dietary supplement applications
were an estimated INR 40 Crore. Supplement applications command the major market
share with over 87 percent of PUFA being used in dietary supplements whereas FB
comprises the rest 13 percent.

In food, probiotics have for long been used in the global market; this is a
moderately new concept in India. Commonly dairy foods have been fortified with
probiotic strains in India such as Dahi / Yoghurt, Lassi and Ice cream. Dietary
supplement is the key end-user segment in India where probiotics are used in
conjunction with other vitamins and minerals. Probiotics finds usage in animal
feed as well as a supplement for poultry and aquaculture feeds. The total Indian
market for probiotic ingredients was valued at an estimated INR 45 Crore as of
2006. Globally, Asia and Europe are the largest producers of probiotics with
Europe having a bigger share of the market.

Modern biotechnology offers clear advantages over the conventional mode of
production. In a sense, the ability to tailor microbial enzymes to human benefit
is what makes this technology so powerful. The total Indian FB enzymes market
was worth INR 88 Crore in 2008. The market grew at 11 percent from 2007 to 2008.
The market, which saw an increasing trend from 2006 growing at almost 12
percent, was interrupted by the global economic slowdown in 2007-2008. The
end-user industry has not seen a major impact due to the recession. The United
States, European Union, and Japan together account for more than 90 percent of
the global enzyme market. Some of the countries in Asia such as China, South
Korea, India, and Taiwan are expected to offer good growth opportunities.

According to Mamta Wadhwa, Sr. Director, CMF Practice, Frost Sullivan, South
Asia Middle East, The market has good scope of growth considering the positive
growth of the Indian food processing industry in terms of new investments, new
product development. This coupled with growing awareness amongst consumers about
product developments in the global market is sure to drive growth in such
fermentation-based food ingredients market in the long term.

The CMF Practice of Frost Sullivan, the global growth partnership company, in
its efforts to address issues on the biotechnology application market faced by
Indian companies, organized an Executive MindXchange titled Food Beverage Focus
2009 on 24th July, which gave a special insight into the Biotechnology
Applications market in the Food Beverage and Dietary Supplements sector.

This MindXchange saw a knowledge sharing of global and Indian trends, overview
of the Indian market and opportunities, new developments, new technologies,
regulations and challenges faced by this sector. Eminent speakers at the summit
included - speaker from Avesthagen Ltd, Mr. Hemant Dande - Senior Vice
President, Raptakos Brett Co Ltd, Mr. Krishna Mohan Puvvada - Industry Sales
Manager, Novozymes South Asia Pvt. Ltd., Dr J. Sambasiva Rao - Head Technical,
Advanced Enzyme Technologies Ltd.,Dr. K.K Tripathi - Biosafety Advisor, Dept of
Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Smita Singhania, General
Manager, Regulatory Affairs, Actis Biologics, Mr. Suhas Chaudhari - Joint
Commissioner, FDA (Mumbai), and Mr. Isaac - Chairman and Managing Director, ABL
Biotechnologies Ltd.

This event was partnered by Advanced Enzymes and supported by the Association
of Biotechnology Led Enterprises. The media partners for the event were Beverage
Food World, Beverage Food Processing, BioSpectrum, Times Food Processing
Journal, Food Beverage News, Express Pharma, Modern Food Processing, Processed
Food Industry, and Kongposh Publications.

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Media contact: Anish Charles P: +91-22-4001-3419 F: +91-22-2832-4713 E:
anish.charles@frost.com Caroline Lewis P: +91-98217-37935 F: +91-22-2832-4713 E:
caroline.lewis@frost.com

SOURCE: Frost SOURCE: Sullivan (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Media contact: Anish Charles, P: +91-22-4001-3419, F: +91-22-2832-4713, E:
anish.charles@frost.com; Caroline Lewis, P: +91-98217-37935, F:
+91-22-2832-4713, E: caroline.lewis@frost.com