India's bakers seek permission to add color, flavor to bread

India’s bread manufacturers are lobbying with the country’s food safety authority for permission to add color and flavor to bread, according to an industry body representing midsize to large bakers.

The All India Bread Manufacturers’ Association wants the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to make amendments to the Food Safety and Standards Act (2006), and allow bakers to add colour, flavor and enzymes to bread. Over a 100 companies are members of the AIBMA.
“Flavored bread is very popular in supermarkets abroad. India’s bakers want to introduce flavored bread in the country as well,” helping them expand their value-added products portfolio, said Ramesh Mago, president, AIBMA.
Mago owns a bread and bakery products manufacturing company, Kitty Industries, in Ludhiana, Punjab.  The company’s products are marketed under the 'Kitty’s' brand name.
AIBMA also wants permission to add enzymes to bread, Mago said. “At present, you can add enzymes to biscuits but not in bread,” said Mago.
India’s per capita consumption of bakery products is about two kilos per annum, compared to between 10 and 50 kilos per annum in developed economies, according to a report by Marketresearch.com.
India’s bakery industry’s market size, pegged at $4.7 billion in 2010, is expected to grow to $7.6 by 2015, the report said. Biscuit-making is the chief occupation of the domestic industry, where unorganized smaller players control the market countrywide.