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Affordable Healthy Food for Common People: Case Study on Traditional Indian
Food Industry

Article  in  SSRN Electronic Journal · January 2019

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3317342

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Affordable Healthy Food for Common
People: Case Study on Traditional Indian
food Industry
By : Trilok Kumar Jain Director, Ecosystem for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Suresh Gyan Vihar
University Jaipur, India.
Er. Nirupa Jain Voluntary Researcher, Knowledge Creators, Rishabh Dev Educational Society, Bikaner, India

Abstract : Damage to environment due to over-exploitation of resources is visible all around and it pertinent
now to focus on SDGs and prepare strategies to revived industries which are contributing towards sustainable
development Affordable nutritious food is one of the important issue for our future. However, it is
disappointing that traditional food industry (cottage industry) in India is facing severe threats from organized
players. This industry is contributingtowards sustainable development. This paper presents a survey of this
industry and suggests means to preserve and protect this industry.

Keywords: SDG, food, hunger, affordable food, traditional industry, cottage industry

Introduction

As the world prepares for SDGs, there are many issues that are confronting us. SDG 2 is about ending hunger.
SDG 3 is about providing healthy food and contributing to overall wellbeing of people. When we look at the
major issues affecting mankind, we find that the most important issues are food, livelihood, housing,
healthcare and education. These issues are very important for the survival of common people. There are
important issues with regard to access and reach of common people to get these essential things. There is a
need to provide suitable mechanisms to enable people to get these things. Policy level changes are required to
ensure that common people are able to get good food, good education, good health care and low cost housing.
There are initiatives for this world over. These initiatives should be documented and shared for the benefit of
everyone. Civilization can progress only through exchange of knowledge and information. There is a need to
create a collaborative approach towards development so that the knowledge and practices are shared world
over and this helps people in developing their practices further. People will be able to develop through
knowledge sharing and will be able to adopt best practices. There is also a need to preserve and protect old
practices, which are very good for the benefit of the common people. It is a necessity for our civilization to
provide good, healthy and nutritious food to everyone. Good food is a right of everyone living on this planet.
There are many people who are not able to get good food and therefore they are suffering from some or other
anomalies. A large number of people are dying every year due to lack of proper food. There is a need to
prepare a strategy with regard to food industry.
We have tried to review literature relating to traditional food industry; however, very few papers were
available on traditional food industry. However, we have been able to find lot of papers on food industry at
large and reference to local food and recipes is found there. Empirical evidences on customers perceptions and
attitudes towards. A set of studies have been reviewed to interpret the factors influencing the buying behavior

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for fitness and traditional eatable items. Finally, motivation and scope of the study has been stated in the last
section of this paper. Customer behavior, being an aspect of human behavior in general and is thus studied by
many social sciences such as economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology or management (Nicholson and
Xiao, 2011; Galalae and Voicu, 2013; Wells, 2014). The term behavior means an observable response to
stimuli from the context (environment). Therefore, human behavior can be understood as various responses to
different stimuli, internal and external. Human behavior is a highly complex and multi-factor response. It is
influenced by many factors. It is difficult to completely predict human behavior. However, we may be able to
identify factors with regard to some aspects of behavior which may influence customer behavior. Proper study
of customer behavior is important as all marketing decisions are based on assumptions about customer
behavior. Customer buying behavior is a widely researched subject and the concept of customer behavior has
been analyzed and researched widely. Food industry is an important industry so it has been thoroughly studied.
According to American Marketing Association, customer behavior is a dynamic interaction of affect and
cognition, behavior, and context (environment) events by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects
of their lives•. Similarly, Hawkins et. al. (2001) have mentioned it as "the study of individuals, groups or
organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use and dispose of items, services, experiences or
ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the customer and society". According to
Batra and Kazmi (2004), customer behavior is "the mental and emotional processes and the observable
behavior of customers during searching, purchasing and post consumption of a product and service". There are
several factors, which influence the buying decision of customers, comprising of psychological forces, social
and group forces and situation factors (Gourville and Norton, 2014). Buying process of a product starts with
identification of necessity and searching of matching items as per the necessity of the customers (Fig. 2.1).
Customers try to collect required information from various sources to evaluate the items suitability, which
clearly satisfies their needs and requirements. Companies can influence the customers in making their choices
for specific items by providing triggers, which give the customers a buying consideration. Customer buying
decision is influenced by many factors, which may be internal to the customers as well as context
(environment) factors. Foxall (2001) in his essay reviewed the course of customer behavior analysis, a research
program that employs the findings and principles of behavioral research to elucidate customer behavior and
marketing management. He mentioned three themes in his essay explicate recent developments in behavior
analysis such as the analysis of verbal behavior, to take account of work by behavior analysts on economic
choice and to apply its lessons to interpret customer behavior and marketing action in naturally occurring
context (environment), and to establish the requirements of an interpretive approach to customer behavior and
marketing which is not limited to an experimental analysis of choice. Foxall (2003) studied various papers that
examined the customer choice over a range of laboratory and naturalistic settings, demonstrating the variety of
interpretations of customer choice. He argued that the profile of marketing-oriented economic systems such as
profile, sales promotions, advertising and promotional campaigns, business strategies and distribution policies;
together clubbed with non marketing influences such as interpersonal interactions among customers (e.g.
word-of-mouth), governmental interventions, prior experience of customers and situational influences on
buying and consumption, influence the customer choice. Hansen (2005) in his study developed a framework,
which integrates several perspectives on customer decision making, and hypothesize possible links between
several basic constructs. The results of this study support the complexity of customer decision making with
three findings; first, customers do not use their cognitive and affective skills independently, rather they affect
each other. Secondly, the cognitive, evaluative constructs of quality and attitude had significant direct effect on
buying intention, whereas the affective construct of emotion had no significant effects on buying intention.
Thirdly, price influenced perceived quality. Johns and Pine (2002) reviewed the literature relating to customer
studies in eatable service discussing survey work, experimental studies and investigations relating to economic
and geography, and sociological and anthropological research. He argued that sociological and anthropological

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3317342

studies have the potential to enrich customer research in the eatable service cottage industry by casting light on
the individual experience that underlies customer responses. He argued that although location and economic
factors are important attributes of eatable and service, these have received little research attention. The study
concluded that there is a necessity for studies to seek new techniques and to exchange ideas and perspectives
between disciplines with the application of appropriate methodology and newer modeling techniques. Strack et
al. (2006) analyzed a dual system customer behavior model based on reflective and impulsive determinants.
The Reflective-Impulsive Model (RIM) assumes that human behavior is joint function of reflective and
impulsive mechanism. The reflective behavior is caused by a decision that is based on rule-based Reasoning
and assessment of likelihood, while impulsive behavior is sudden, compelling, and hedonic. The relative
contribution of impulsive and reflective processes depends on personal and contextual circumstances, which
in turn contributes to an act of buying. Wesley et al. (2006) in their study on customer shopping behavior
assessed how customer’s decision making styles relate to their shopping mall behavior. They provided a
theoretical model of antecedents and consequences of customer decision-making styles based on exploratory
data analysis (EDA) from 527 mall shoppers. Findings of the study supported the existence of different
customer decision making Styles among adult mall shoppers and confirmed the possibility that a substantial
share of customers are not oriented strongly to any one CDM style. Results also revealed that gender is a prime
antecedent associating with CDM styles, although income, education, and age were not found to be
significantly associated with customer decision-making style. Broring and Cloutier (2008) analyzed the
buyer-seller relationship in value creation in the competitive business context (environment) through new
product. Their research was based on a qualitative primary survey of project managers, who were working
actively in the fields of R&D, NPD, corporate innovation management and marketing of eatables and other
ingredients (contents) of businesses in pharmaceutical, specialty chemistry and eatable industries; and the data
was collected by means of 54 in-depth interviews. Through their study, they indicated that product presenting
such as ingredients (contents) can become more standardized only with the emergence of cottage industry
standards. Cardello et al. (2013) in their study on better-for-you eatable items, tried to empirically determine
whether increasing better-for-you eatable items/lower-calorie items could help businesses achieve superior
performance while addressing the issue of obesity at the same time. They evaluated the customer packaged
goods (CPG) companies and the Restaurant sector by analyzing the data related to these companies, obtained
from various sources such as A. C. Nielson Company and NPD group. From their study, they concluded that
for both the industries, superior business results were achieved for the time periods when better-for-you/
lower- calorie eatables were presented to the customers. They concluded that companies having higher than
average sales of such eatable items showed stronger sales growth, coupled with operating profit margins and
growth, and enhanced company reputation. The study suggested that CPG companies and restaurants could
enhance their business opportunities, increase their financial gains by placing more emphasis on selling better-
for-you items and at the same time, can play a substantial role in addressing the widespread problem of obesity
too. German (2008) found that poor dietary choices have affected the fitness of people and in order to ensure
excellent food delivery in the market, a significant investment is required in science, agriculture and eatable
industrialization. He further emphasized that investment in safe eatable system can brighten the prospects for
changing the eatable market
From product-centric to a customer-centric one, for delivering adequate fitness benefits to the customers.
Collaborative efforts of all the stakeholders are required providing good food to the customers, for improving
the overall fitness status of the population. Granato et al. (2010) in their research on eatables highlighted the
key strategies. They argued that the eatable segment has been growing rapidly in recent years and customers
have been looking for eatable items, which provide fitness benefits in addition to energy and nutrients. They
highlighted that in specific sectors of the dairy cottage industry, such as cheese, yogurts and deserts, probiotics
showed significant potential for growth and expansion. They emphasized that since the global eatables market

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is growing rapidly, the biggest challenge for both science and industrial sectors is to undertake the
development of eatable items as a key research priority. They further argued that special attention needs to be
paid to the sensory attributes of eatables in terms of dissemination of information regarding their most
desirable profile. Granato et al. (2010), in another study on eatables, have examined the importance of non-
dairy eatable items containing probiotic bacteria strains. They emphasizes that the modern customers are
increasingly becoming interested in maintaining and improving their personal fitness and are constantly
looking for eatable that is good or capable of averting diseases. They argued that researches should be carried
out to evolve new medium for the growth and development of probiotics. This would help in satisfying the
needs and demands of all kinds of customers by increasing the number and variety of items in the market.
They concluded that both non-dairy and soy-based probiotic categories of eatables have huge potential for
developing newer and novel ingredients, processes and items, which may subsequently open new avenues for
growth of eatable cottage industry. Green (2006) discussed case of Nestlé’s Initiatives in nutritional food
products, to meet the growing challenge of global obesity. She emphasized that eatable companies play a vital
role in improving the fitness and traditional of people by improving their nutritional profiles, providing them
adequate information on nutrition and fitness benefits of eatable and undertaking (starting) collaborative steps
along with other stakeholders to bring forth apt solution for fitness related problems. She suggested that
eatable companies should undertake the processes of product renovation and innovation through research and
development in order to provide the customer with eatable items, which are both tasty and provide good
nutrition at the same time. Hawkers (2007) in her study for WHO on the changing regulatory context
(environment) in eatable cottage industry regarding the marketing of eatable items to young customers,
examined how statutory regulations and cottage industry-wide self-regulations have been developed by the
governments and the eatable cottage industry in response to the needs and calls for regulating the eatable
marketing in view of the changing regulatory context (environment). The study revealed that there are three
types of regulations on marketing eatable to young people, which include government regulations that could be
used by the governments or regulatory bodies to implement restrictions or prohibitions on the quantity, content
and medium of advertising; ˜government guidelines, which are implemented and issued by the concerned
governments; and ˜self-regulations, which are voluntary codes of practices that govern the content of
marketing campaigns, developed by individual eatable companies but administered by the industries
concerned. Hobbs et al. (2014) compared (analyzed) the Canadian method of regulation with other countries
including United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. They emphasized that the
there is a need to have proper measures for protection of the customers. At the same time, there is also a
necessity for undertaking (starting) research and development of new items that consists of beneficial and good
ingredients. They further explored the factors that lead to the failure of regulations related to production and
consumption of fitness eatables. They emphasized the necessity for bringing about uniformity of fitness claims
regulations across various countries. They provided suggestions for the Canadian regulatory system to design
proper regulations on eatables by including insights from other regulatory dominions in order to be more
effective. Kaufmann and Palzer (2011) found that food industry preferred low energy density, high content of
fibers & proteins, presence of whole grains and added micronutrients & bioactive compounds and this is
directly related to wellbeing of the customers. They emphasized the necessity for inclusion of advanced and
complex properties in the eatable items by way of preparing foods for the consumers. This could be done via
adjustments in the production processes to enhance the nutritional quality of the eatable, leading to
development of eatable items, which can address the nutritional needs of the customers.

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Research Objectives, Data Collection and findings
Our research objective was to find the relevance of the traditional food industry to find its problems and
possible solutions. We summarize our objectives as below: -
a. To identify problems of the traditional food industry in india
b. To prepare strategies for the revival of traditional food industry in india
c. To prepare a roadmap for future growth of this industry
Based on the litarerture review, we found that we need to understand the problems of this industry through the
experiences of the practitioners and customers. We realized that there is a need to study this industry from a
broader perspective. In this research, we have conducted interviews of the entrepreneurs, who are engaged in
food industry. We have conducted interviews of thirty entrepreneurs and thirty customers, who are using
traditional food. Traditional food industry is facing sever threat from organized players. Traditional food
industry is still able to survive due to its competitiveness. This industry is based on local resources, therefore it
is able to have lower costs and therefore it is able to charge lower prices and it is still surviving. However, the
organized players have access to latest tool of marketing, sales, distribution and they are able to influence
young generations through their advertisements and campaigns. They are able to persuade younger generations
to use modern products, which are offered by large organized players. Traditional industry is scattered,
unorganized and lacks access to modern marketing and advertising opportunities. Traditional industry lacks
skills in branding, marketing, sales, distribution. However, they have good quality and good resources. They
focus on quality as their main tool for survival. Traditional industry is also facing challenges from modern
tools which prepare mass scale production. Mass scale production technologies wipe out traditional food
industry which is based on individual labor and is not using machines much. The use of machines is
discouraged in the traditional industry, which relies on human involvement, human judgement, and human
creativity. The traditional food industry gives ample opportunities for human creativity and innovative
potential. The traditional food industry is now experiencing the threat to survival as the young generation is
hooked to modern branded products and wants to go for organized players. The tendency on the part of
educated middle class to switch to organized players is creating a threat to the small cottage industry. The
cottage industry also realizes that they don’t have many options and they would have to close down in the
future due to rising automation and due to rise of the organized players. Organized players are using latest
machines, which are using automated production processes to produce goods. During the survey, we found
that the entrepreneurs are experiencing high sense of satisfaction due to their own involvement, creativity and
their ability to innovate at the stage of manufacturing. The traditional entrepreneurs are experiencing a
satisfaction that they have offered quality products to the customers and they are experiencing a direct relation
with the customers. Their customers come to them repeatedly and express very high level of satisfaction from
their products. Customers also expressed their desire to continue to use the products. However, some
customers expressed that they have been advised to eat less such products due to health reasons. These
customers still prefer to use the products. The customers also expressed that the next generations in their
families would not take these products because the next generations prefer to go for organized players. Indian
traditional food industry is primarily a cottage industry, which is serving people with healthy food for long
period of time. The food offered by this industry is both tasty and healthy. The food offered by this industry is
based on knowledge and practices, which have been in use for generations. This knowledge is very old so it is
often termed as traditional knowledge. For generations people have used this knowledge and expertise to serve
quality food to people. However, this industry is now facing some problems due to competition from MNCs.
however; there are still considerable numbers of people, who prefer to buy goods made by this industry.
We have carried out survey of this industry based on interaction with the entrepreneurs and key persons. We
have found many significant characteristics of this industry. This industry has many characteristics, which
include the following: -

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A. household cottage industry - it is not organized in the form of a large industry. It is spread out and it is
home based industry. The technology is such which can be used in homes. The technology is passed from one
generation to another.
B. local area based technologies and differentiation - the industry is local area based. The technology also
changes from one area to another. People develop technologies and use in a particular area. No literature or
organized material is available about technology. Knowledge and expertise is being transferred through oral
instructions and personal guidance. There is no form of written knowledge. The expertise of the people is very
high, but it is reducing from generation to generation due to lack of motivation among young people to take up
this profession.
C. We found that the entrepreneurs felt harassed by the government inspectors. They expressed that there is no
quality support institution from the government. They expressed lack of awareness of any laboratory that could
help them in quality enhancement. They expressed that they didn’t get any support from the government. They
were disappointed at the lack of any support from government or semi-0government institutions. They were
also disappointed at GST and other online such taxes, which are putting pressure on them to go online. These
entrepreneurs are struggling for survival and they find it difficult to prepare a strategy to become online
entrepreneurs. They found it difficult to learn computers and other tools to do their business. They have no
clerical staff. They are running business through limited resources. These entrepreneurs found no opportunities
for marketing their products or for branding their products. There was no effort from government institutions
to provide branding or other support to these entrepreneurs. There is no support from government, however,
now due to the new laws of GST and other requirements, there are only problems from the government.
Increasing legal requirements make the small cottage industry to shrink further. Generally the entrepreneurs
are called Halwai - they have been traditionally into this industry for generations (may be hundreds of years in
this profession). These people have gained considerable expertise. However, these people are not very
educated in terms of formal education and they are not very conversant in English. They find it difficult to
undertake modern paper work which is now in English. The emphasis of the modern government to impose
English and to introduce all taxation and other requirements in English language is putting pressure on these
people. These people find it difficult to comply with the government requirements. There are food inspectors
spread out in almost every city in India. These persons are generally very corrupt in India. Entrepreneurs report
that they are forced to offer some money every month to these food inspectors and thereby there is additional
burden on these people. There is a considerable demand from people for food products; however, these
entrepreneurs find it difficult to take shops on rent at prominent locations. Indian Railways and other such
public sector organizations are not giving full support to these entrepreneurs. They prefer organized brands and
therefore this industry is facing the problems. The problems and challenges of the present time may kill this
industry completely in the years to come. However, this industry will remain a very important industry in the
history of industrialization. This industry is an example of pollution free cottage industry, which is involved in
self-sustaining practices and is not causing any harm to context (environment). The food products made by this
industry are chemical free, fresh and good for health. They prepare food products using local resources. The
food products prepared by this industry are based on traditional knowledge, weather, knowledge of
circumstances etc. Thus this food industry is contributing to health and overall fitness of the people at large.

Customers want to eat tasty and nutritious food; food that is reasonably priced; or eatable that is conventional
to eatable that presents some added fitness benefits. Traditional recipes are generally included in the diet of
people who perceive these to provide fitness benefits more than essential nutrition. Researchers have been
trying for long to understand the eatable choices of people and their perceptions and attitudes towards fitness
and traditional eatable items. There are numerous empirical researches on customer buying behavior for
traditional recipes and food items, eatable safety and factors influencing buying preferences and attitudes of

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3317342

Customers. This paper highlights the key findings of researches on customer’s perceptions and attitudes
towards buying of different fitness and traditional eatable categories and factors influencing the buying of
fitness and traditional eatable items. In this paper, we will review the existing literature on fitness and
traditional eatables, in order to interpret the key areas of concern in the related fields and to point out the
conclusions and develop new perspectives on the findings of correlated studies.
The loss of the traditional industry will be a big loss to the humanity. The fall in the volume of the
traditional industry should be taken as a threat to our civilization. This industry is truly a mark of our rich
heritage and this industry can contribute substantially towards sustainable development and growth. We
should try to protect and promote this industry. An example here is that of Til Papdi from Beawar
(Rajasthan). This industry has been a great industry. This industry prepares a sweet product from Til and
it is a very good product. It is good for health. However, due to rise of organized players, this product is
now not popular among young generation. Old people continue to eat this product, but young people
don’t go for this product. However, this product has immense scope and immense contribution. Such
products should be protected and promoted. The governments should also take initiatives to support such
industries.

Conclusion
We found that the traditional food industry of India, which is a cottage industry, based on home based
technologies is a very good industry for sustainable development of the society. It is a matter of
disappointments that this industry is now experiencing a threat due to rising competition from organized
players and due to rising automation. This industry is providing ample opportunities for human creativity
and innovation. This industry offers good food and uses local resources for the development of healthy
food. There is a need to protect and promote this industry. This industry is generally neglected and there
is a need to protect and promote this industry. The regulatory framework is impeding the growth of this
industry. The inspectors appointed by government create problems for the entrepreneurs. Instead of these
inspectors, there should be quality councils to support the entrepreneurs in introducing and managing high
quality.

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