No abstract

Background: Recent years have seen a transition in consumer’s buying behaviour for foods  having better nutrition, transparent claims with more clean processes and ingredients.  Objective: This paper aims at understanding the factors that influence consumers’ food buying  behaviour, perceptions and healthy food choices. Methodology: Quantitative research was done  in restricted cities of India through online media. Information was collected (targeting21-40  years age group) from 470 respondents (64.4% males and 35.6% females). Responses were  recorded through an online circulated questionnaire containing 15 close-ended questions,  which were statistically analyzed through MS-excel using graphical representations. Results: A greater inclination was seen towards healthier options in staples such as multigrain flour.  The survey findings reported that around 34.5% of consumers are taking the product quality  claims and source of ingredients seriously, and also consumers do care about the environmental  impact of the products, with 83.62% respondents preferring products which are environment  friendly and socially responsible. Conclusion: It can be concluded that there has been a  considerable shift towards healthier food choices. Companies should focus on strategies to  promote healthier choices, clean labels, more transparency and reduce their environment  and social burden. Marketing strategies may also be geared towards promotion of products  through online platforms since millennia’s, who compromise 48% of work force spend their  major time online.

Promoting and encouraging use of diverse nutritious grains is not only healthy but can also, provide livelihood opportunities to rural groups.The study attempted a farm to table approach by standardizing traditional puffing of amaranth grains and training women for a batch scale process to develop a scalable business model. Manual puffing process for amaranth grains was developed and standardized. Puffed samples were compared with market samples for sensory parameters, expansion ratio, nutritive composition and sodium content using SPSS and MS-excel statistical analysis.It was observed that direct heat puffing of cleaned and sieved grains on inclined karahis, provided good puffing efficiency (approximate 94%). Manually puffed grains had similar nutritional values and were crunchier than the market samples. Though, the machine puffed samples had better expansion ratio but, a higher sodium content of 1349.01 ± 0.073 and 1346.15 ± 0.014 mg/100g was reported when compared with manually puffed grains having only 135.3 ±0.037mg/100g of sodium. Individual capacities of women were observed for six months to develop a learning curve to understand production efficiencies. The production capacity of women ranged from 2250 kg to 3250 kg per month. A traceable model was developed, by procuring grains from small and marginal farmers, and processing undertaken by trained women groups. A production of 34, 936 kg of puffed grain in the FY 2020-21 indicated a potential for a sustainable business supporting livelihoods and health.