CONVENIENCE AND HEALTH FOODS 3 (1+2)

Lesson 1 : Convenience Foods

Types of convenience foods

Convenience foods can be classified into three groups

1. Ready to eat foods (RTE):

The foods that can be directly consumed from the package with or without warming, thawing and without preparation are called RTE foods.

• Dairy snacks: Processed cheese, cheese spread, butter and ghee.

• Dairy sweets: Gulab jamuns, kala jamun, Rasgullas, pedhas and burfis.

• Other sweets: Sohan papdi, sohan halwa, jilebas, Mysore paks, besan laddu and other sweets.

• Bakery products: Biscuits, bread and cakes

• Fried snacks: Chips, wafers, fried legumes and other snacks.

• Retort processed foods: paneer curries, Dal fries, parathas can be packed well in retort pouch made of polypropylene for six months. The products can be heated along with pouches and eaten as and when needed.

• Frozen foods: Ice cream, idli, chicken, kabab, fruits and vegetables.

• Extruded snacks: Cereal and pulse based, soya based extruded snacks.

• Traditional sweet meats: Modakas, laddus, madeli, karchikai and holige.

• Adjuncts: Pickles, dry chutneys, fruit chutneys etc



2. Ready to use foods (RTU):

• Foods which need some preparation like cooking, frying and reconstitution before consumption are called ready to use foods.

• Masalas: Butter chicken mix, garam masala, chat masala, meat masala, curry masala, palav mix, puliogare mix, rasam powder, sambar powder, ginger and garlic paste.

• Fresh cut vegetables: Carrots, beans, cabbages and others are washed and cut into slices, cubes and shreds and modified atmosphere packed.

• Ready to cook foods (RTC): Noodles, instant idli, dosa and rava idli, mixes.

• Ready to fry foods (RTF): papads, fingers chips, wafers, fryums and chicken.

• Ready to reconstitute foods: khoa powder, kulfi mix, instant ice cream mix and weaning mixes.

• Breakfast cereals: Corn flakes, wheat flakes, jowar and millet based flakes, pops and extruded cereals.

• Canned foods: Fruits vegetables, pulps, rasagulla, jamun, curries, meat, fish and chicken.



3. Beverages

• Ready to drink beverages (RTD): The drinks that can be directly consumed from container like apple, mango, straw berry and milk based beverages.
  

  Horlicks and malt shakes are available in tetra packs, with a shelf life of 4 months. Sweet lassi and cold coffee are available with a shelf life of 6 months. Natural fruit juices in tetra packs are sold.

• Ready to serve beverages (RTS): These beverages need some preparation before serving. The beverages have to be diluted or reconstituted before use. These include fruit concentrates in different flavours, Tropicana, spicy tomato rasam, soup, chicken soup, instant soup powders and instant juice powders like rasna.