India Food Stats

Shashi Kumar, Founder & CEO of Akshayakalpa candidly shares his experience : " More often than not, we tend to believe that once we have built a brand, we can introduce more products around the same philosophy and make them successful. Our experience with organic bananas has taught us how difficult this can be in practice. On 24 October 2026, we stopped supplying organic bananas to our customers. We started in February 2022 with just 10 kg per day and gradually grew to nearly 3,000 kg per day. The idea was to help our existing dairy farmers diversify their farms and earn additional income. Many farmers planted 50–100 banana suckers alongside their dairy units, while some cultivated bananas on small plots of about a quarter of an acre.  We procured certified organic Yellaki bananas from these farmers and supplied them to Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.  From the beginning, we wanted to ripen bananas without using external ripening agents. This turned out to be far more di...

Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP) is a dairy product that is produced by removing the cream and fat from whole milk and then evaporating and spray-drying the resulting milk. Skim Milk Powder is commonly used in various food products such as bakery items, dairy products, soups, sauces, frozen foods, beverages, and others Dairy Whitener is formulated specifically for tea/coffee. Dissolves rapidly without curdling in hot liquids. Image - Open Food Facts While both are dry powders made from milk solids, they are formulated differently for distinct culinary and beverage purposes: Attribute Dairy Whitener (e.g., Amulya) Skimmed Milk Powder (e.g., Aavin, Sagar) Primary Purpose Formulated specifically for tea/coffee. Dissolves rapidly without curdling in hot liquids. Designed to replace liquid skimmed milk in cooking, baking, curd-making, or drinking. Fat Content High Fat (~20%): Milk fat is retained (or added) to impart creaminess, body, and whitening power to beverages. Very Low Fat (≤ 1.5% / ~1g...

Nutri-Score is a front-of-pack label that rates a food’s overall nutritional quality on a five-level scale, ranging from A, the healthiest, to E. The Nutri-Score is most effective when comparing products in the same category (ex. breakfast cereals). Image - Open Food Facts The Nutri-Score is managed by the French national public health agency Santé Publique France. It summarizes the table of nutritional values ​​so that everyone can understand it. The goal is to provide access to clear and understandable nutritional information for everyone. The "5-color nutrition system" was developed in 2014 by EREN - a French public research team in nutritional epidemiology, led by Professor Serge Hercberg. Open Food Facts (OFF) became the first to digitally compute the score when it used the Nutri-Score formula in 2014 to compute grades across all 10,000 French products in its database overnight, demonstrating that automated, objective front-of-pack scoring could be done efficiently on a ...

I spotted the ingredient DVS on a pack of Dahi. I turned to Gemini to know more about it. Image: Open Food Facts On packaged curd or yogurt labels, DVS stands for Direct Vat Set (often accompanied by the phrase Active Culture or Starter Culture). DVS culture is specially formulated to provide desired flavors, mouthfeel, and sourness in curd. Key points: 1. It is a freeze-dried lactic culture designed for Direct Vat Set applications, ensuring consistent quality and flavor. 2. The culture can be customized based on customer requirements for acidity, texture, and flavor. 3. DVS cultures are phage-resistant, ensuring high-quality fermentation and consistent results in curd production. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulates dairy products by establishing standards for composition, quality, and safety. ‘Fermented Milk’ may be replaced with designations Dahi, Curd and Yoghurt if the product complies with the relevant provisions of FSSAI's Standards. If cultures...

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is India’s national standards body. It sets Indian Standards and certifies that products meet those standards. BIS certification is generally voluntary, but the Government of India can make it mandatory for certain products through Quality Control Orders (QCOs), mainly to protect public health, safety, the environment, and consumers, and to prevent unfair trade practices.  Skimmed milk powder is among food products for which manufacturers have to obtain BIS Certification. Image - Open Food Facts For products covered by a QCO, manufacturers and importers must obtain BIS certification—usually an ISI Mark licence or, for some electronics, registration under the Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS)—before manufacturing, importing, selling, storing, or displaying the product for sale. The rules apply to both Indian and foreign manufacturers. Examples of mandatory products include cement, domestic pressure cookers, LPG stoves and cylinders, packaged ...