INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT

Project Title:-“Sales and lead generation of Mccain frozen food in IT Companies, Lounges and Bars across Pune”

FMCG INDUSTRY

Name of the Company:

Mccain Food India Pvt. Ltd.

Project Head & Supervisor:

Mr. Gaurav Puranik

Project Duration:

Commencement of the project: 13th may

Introduction of Frozen Food-:

Freezing food preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved their game and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows down decomposition by turning residual moisture into ice, inhibiting the growth of most bacterial species. In the food commodity industry, the process is called IQF or Individually Quick Frozen.

Freezing food in domestic kitchens during the 20th and 21st centuries is achieved using household freezers. Accepted advice to householders was to freeze food on the day of purchase. An initiative by a supermarket group in 2012 (backed by the UK's Waste & Resources Action Programme) promotes advising the freezing of food "as soon as possible up to the product's 'use by' date". The Food Standards Agency was reported to support the change, providing food has been stored correctly up to that time.

Preservatives

Frozen products do not require any added preservatives because microorganisms do not grow when the temperature of the food is below -9.5°C, which is sufficient on its own in preventing food spoilage. Long-term preservation of food may call for food storage at even lower temperatures. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), a tasteless and odorless stabilizer, is typically added to frozen food because it does not adulterate the quality of the product.

History

Beginning in 1929, Clarence Birdseye offered his quick-frozen foods to the public. Birdseye got the idea during fur-trapping expeditions to Labrador in 1912 and 1916, where he saw the natives use freezing to preserve foods. Modern attempts at refrigeration began in the early 20th century in the meat packing industry. More advanced attempts include food frozen for Eleanor Roosevelt on her trip to Russia. Other experiments, involving orange juice, ice cream and vegetables were conducted by the military near the end of World War II.

Packaging

Frozen food packaging must maintain its integrity throughout machine filling, sealing, freezing, storage, transportation, thawing, and often cooking. As many frozen foods are cooked in a microwave oven, manufacturers have developed packaging that can go straight from freezer to the microwave.

In 1974, the first differential heating container (DHC) was sold to the public. A DHC is a sleeve of metal designed to allow frozen foods to receive the correct amount of heat. Various sized apertures were positioned around the sleeve. The consumer would put the frozen dinner into the sleeve according to what needed the most heat. This ensured proper cooking.

Today there are multiple options for packaging frozen foods. Boxes, cartons, bags, pouches, heat-in-bag pouches, lidded trays and pans, crystallized PET trays, and composite and plastic cans.

Scientists are continually researching new aspects of frozen food packaging. Active packaging offers a host of new technologies that can actively sense and then neutralize the presence of bacteria or other harmful species. Active packaging can extend shelf-life, maintain product safety, and help preserve the food over a longer period of time. Several functions of active packaging are being researched:

Effects on nutrients

Vitamin content of frozen foods

• Vitamin C: Usually lost in a higher concentration than any other vitamin. A study was performed on peas to determine the cause of vitamin C loss. A vitamin loss of ten percent occurred during the blanching phase with the rest of the loss occurring during the cooling and washing stages. The vitamin loss was not actually accredited to the freezing process. Another experiment was performed involving peas and lima beans. Frozen and canned vegetables were both used in the experiment. The frozen vegetables were stored at −10 °F (−23 °C) and the canned vegetables were stored at room temperature (75 °F). After 0, 3, 6, and 12 months of storage, the vegetables were analyzed with and without cooking. O'Hara, the scientist performing the experiment said, "From the view point of the vitamin content of the two vegetables when they were ready for the plate of the consumer, there did not appear to be any marked advantages attributable to method of preservation, frozen storage, processed in a tin, or processed in glass."

• Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): A vitamin loss of 25 percent is normal. Thiamin is easily soluble in water and is destroyed by heat.

• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Not much research has been done to see how much freezing affects Riboflavin levels. Studies that have been performed are inconclusive; one study found an 18 percent vitamin loss in green vegetables, while another determined a 4 percent loss. It is commonly accepted that the loss of Riboflavin has to do with the preparation for freezing rather than the actual freezing process itself.

• Vitamin A (Carotene): There is little loss of carotene during preparation for freezing and freezing of most vegetables. Much of the vitamin loss is incurred during the extended storage period.

Effectiveness

Freezing is an effective form of food preservation because the pathogens that cause food spoilage are killed or do not grow very rapidly at reduced temperatures. The process is less effective in food preservation than are thermal techniques, such as boiling, because pathogens are more likely to be able to survive cold temperatures rather than hot temperatures. One of the problems surrounding the use of freezing as a method of food preservation is the danger that pathogens deactivated (but not killed) by the process will once again become active when the frozen food thaws.

Foods may be preserved for several months by freezing. Long-term frozen storage requires a constant temperature of -18 °C (0 °F) or less, a temperature which many non-industrial freezers cannot achieve.

COMPANY OVERVIEW

McCain Foods Ltd. is the world's largest producer of French Fries and Potato Specialities. Located in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada, McCain has grown to become a global leader in the frozen food industry. From Canada, across the world to Japan, from the tip of Argentina to suburbs in Australia, our tasty and convenient food products are served in restaurants and sold in retail stores; adding nutrition and flavour to family meals time after time.

McCain Foods (India) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of McCain Foods Limited in Canada. Since 1998, McCain has been engaged in agriculture R&D and in development of frozen food market in India and subcontinent countries. McCain products are used by leading fast food chains, hotels, restaurants, catering companies and are popular for in-home consumption.

At McCain, it's our constant endeavour to create good food that is delightfully fresh. In order to maintain an impeccable standard of quality, we strive to use the highest quality ingredients. Our products are prepared simply with wholesome ingredients made by good people who care about delivering quality in every box, every bag and every bite.

McCain focuses on providing great variety to customers and consumers. A delectable range of products is available, world favourites like McCain French Fries, McCain Smiles and local delights such as McCain Aloo Tikki, Idli Sambar Combo and real cheese appetizers like McCain Cheese & Jalapeno Nuggets and Potato Cheese Shotz.

• Global sales of over $6 billion.

• Products marketed in 160 countries world over.

• One in every three French fries around the world is a McCain fry.

• 50 manufacturing facilities around the world.

• World class potato processing plant in Mehsana district of Gujarat.

Theoretical Background:

The analysis is that the frozen food market by products and geography .The report also analyzes the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities for the frozen food in the major geographies of U.S., Europe and Asia. The global frozen food market is expected to grow from $218.41 billion in 2010.to $261.50 billion in 2015 at an estimated CAGR of 3.7%.

Convenience is the major driving factor for the global frozen food market. Consumers are looking for variety of food options which require minimum time for preparation. Unorganized sector comprising unbranded frozen products remains the biggest challenge to the organized sector of branded frozen food products. New product launches is one of the major trends followed by key industry participants such as Nestlé, Kraft Food, Ajinomoto and others to grab market shares of growing frozen market. Lot of MNC’s and regional players are leaders in the regional markets. The major factors restricting the growth of the market are the existence of private labels; especially in Europe where they constitute around 40% of the total frozen foods market.

U.S. is expected to witness a moderate CAGR of 4% from 2010 to 2015 while the rest of the World (ROW) segment (which includes Latin America, Australasia and others) is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 4.7%. In 2010, Europe had the largest share in the global frozen food market sales of $87.38 billion. Germany is the biggest consumer in Europe with a share of 17% with a consumption of 6.04 million tons of frozen food. Asian frozen food market is expected to grow at an estimated CAGR of 3.4% from 2010 to 2015. Japan leads the Asian countries in terms of frozen food consumption with 7.82 million tons in 2010. Ready meals are the most expensive ones among the frozen food product categories and thus account for the largest market share of 40% in terms of revenue. Frozen pizza is the fastest growing segment in the frozen ready meals segment with an estimated CAGR of 4% with the U.S. expected to continue its dominance in the segment from 2010 to 2015.

The report “GLOBAL FROZEN FOOD MARKET ANALYSIS BY PRODUCTS TYPE AND BY GEOGRAPHY - TRENDS AND FORECASTS (2010 – 2015)” extensively analyses the market by products and by geography. The product segmentation covers various frozen food categories of fruits and vegetables, potatoes, soup, meat, fish and ready meals. The geographical segmentation discusses about the major countries in different geographies. The report also discusses the major technologies and packaging techniques used by key industry participants in the frozen food industry along with key industry events such as new product launches, mergers and acquisitions and agreements. The objective of report is to highlight key market trends which can be strategically useful and actionable for the stakeholders i.e. frozen food manufacturers, frozen food packaging manufactures, frozen food retailers, distributors, importers and exporters and research and consulting firms in the frozen food industry. The entire report is supported with lots of facts and figures about market size, market revenues and prices per capita consumptions. The total number of tables and figures are about 132 in the report. The report also forecasts the frozen food market till 2015.

History of Frozen Foods:

The easy and convenient home meal solutions provided by frozen food products today make our hectic life-styles seem a bit easier. Convenient, easy-to-prepare, nutritious and delicious frozen foods seem as if they were recently invented—specially-designed for modern life. In fact, frozen foods have been around a lot longer than you think, successfully evolving and adapting to the needs of consumers.

Freezing Foods Has Long History

The modern frozen food industry was born over 70 years ago, in 1930, but freezing foods as a means of preservation is a practice that has long historical roots. The first to harness the power of freezing foods beyond the winter months were the Chinese, who used ice cellars as early as 1000 B.C. The Greeks and Romans stored compressed snow in insulated cellars, and the Egyptians and Indians discovered that rapid evaporation through the porous walls of clay vessels produced ice crystals in the water inside the vessels.

But it was Clarence Birdseye and his American company that finally made frozen foods a practical reality in 1930. Legend has it that Birdseye’s interest in freezing food began in 1912, when, as a young engineer in Labrador, he often froze his catch after a day of fishing to keep it fresh. But it wasn’t until 1928 that Birdseye was successful in creating the double belt freezer, the forerunner of modern freezing technology, and not until 1930 that he finally introduced a line of frozen foods to the public. Contrary to popular belief, the line was not strictly vegetables, but included 18 cuts of meat, spinach, peas, fruits and berries, fish fillets and Blue Point oysters.

But the road to consumer acceptance of these products was a long and rocky one. The first obstacle was the retailers themselves, who were unwilling to spend the money to buy refrigerated display cases to merchandise the new products. Consumer resistance was also high, so the industry found its early savior in the institutional market. By the latter part of the 1930s, railroads and steamship lines became dumping grounds for surplus retail inventories and low or off-grade frozen products, because the frozen products were prepared before being served to diners, and customers didn’t know the food was frozen.

The War to Save Frozens

Frozen foods might have died off altogether if not for the onset of World War II. When Japan overran southeast Asia, it captured a large portion of the world’s tin resources and the U.S. government placed stringent controls on canners in an effort to conserve this vital wartime metal. This opened the door for frozens, which used less crucial materials such as paperboard, waxed paper and cellophane. Furthermore, retail shelves emptied as canned goods went to war, so major grocery chains eagerly pressed frozens into service to fill the gaps. Additionally, since frozens did not use metal, their purchase by consumers required fewer ration points than canned products.

The 1940s were host to another milestone in the growth of the frozen food industry: the introduction of frozen concentrated orange juice.

This product really marked the first volume item for the frozen food industry, but was soon followed by another: frozen breaded seafood.

The TV Age

The 1950s were significant for the frozen food industry because it marked the introduction of a product that grew to be synonymous with the term frozen food: the TV Dinner. For the first time, a complete meal was available in frozen form to families who wished to dine quickly and easily at the table or in front of the TV, as the name implied. These dinners included an entree/meat item, a starch and a vegetable, and sometimes a dessert.

Americans were introduced to another favorite frozen food in the early 50s—the fish stick, and more companies scrambled to win a piece of the suddenly growing frozen food market. Because of this heightened competition, the 1950s remain as one of the most innovative periods in the history of frozen foods, and manufacturers all scrambled to bring new products to consumers first. Among the other innovative foods introduced in frozen form during this decade were frozen pies and frozen side dishes.

The Lean Years

The 1960s were lean years for the frozen food industry, but not in the traditional sense. The 1960s were characterized by a new “diet” craze in America, and from this craze such products as Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers were born. The industry continued to experience growth until the early 70s, when the country was gripped by one of the worst recessions in history, and an inflationary spiral that led the government to institute severe price controls.

Creative marketing and a strong determination attitude helped the industry to survive this tough period, and allowed the industry to remain strong heading into the late 70s and 80s, when a new invention led to booming sales.

The introduction of the microwave oven for home use allowed consumers to prepare frozen foods in record time, and solved the dilemma of families who now had two working parents. Teamed with the microwave oven, frozen food’s new buzzword became “convenience,” and consumers were quick to respond. TV dinners were replaced by “frozen entrees” and upscale dinners, with more taste and variety, and the option to prepare in minutes using the microwave.

The 1990s ushered in an era of “healthy” eating for Americans. Frozen foods were quick to adapt to this new life-style of America, and brands like Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, and many others thrived. Consumers were hungry not only for taste, but for healthy ingredients, and regulations requiring full disclosure of ingredients made consumers more health conscious than ever before. Words like “lite,” “low-salt,” “low-fat,” and “low-cholesterol” were the new adjectives of choice on frozen meals.

The Future

What does the future hold for frozen foods? It’s impossible to predict. Clarence Birdseye may have shook his head in disbelief if someone had suggested in his day that the future would hold frozen dinners that could be prepared in minutes, frozen foods targeted specifically to children, frozen ethnic foods of every variety and frozen food choices for every meal occasion in the day.

But, thanks to the tenacity and innovation of the frozen food industry, all these dreams are reality today, and our dreams of tomorrow could show up in your freezer much sooner than you think!

How Frozen food is different from normal food:

When a piece of fruit comes off the tree or a vegetable is pulled from the ground, it will invariably be rich in nutrients and vitamins as all fresh produce is. Something many people don't know, however, is that fresh produce is often picked before its peak of ripeness so that it may be shipped with minimal damage to the product. During the long distance most produce must travel to get to its final destination, fruits and vegetables are also exposed to lots of heat and light which may diminish or degrade some of the more sensitive vitamins in the produce. While picking fruit and vegetables early ensures a more attractive and "perfect" product, the produce may not be quite as rich in nutrients as it could have been if picked at a later date. The fresh produce is still full of its normal array of healthy nutrients, it just may not be in its prime nutritive condition.

Frozen produce, on the other hand, is generally picked at its peak of ripeness and frozen immediately after a process called blanching, where the product is cooked briefly in boiling water to sterilize it. While certain water-soluble vitamins like vitamins C and B may be partially lost during this process, frozen fruit and vegetables generally keep the majority of their nutritive value when processed. Because of this, frozen produce is no less nutritious than fresh produce. However, frozen produce may again lose some of its nutritive content when reheated. In order to maintain the most nutrition in both frozen and fresh produce, reheating in a microwave or steaming rather than boiling is the best way to keep produce whole and intact.

Process of manufacturing frozen food:

Frozen foods are ubiquitous in American supermarkets, and are increasingly a part of the food industry worldwide. Fruits and vegetables are usually frozen within hours of being picked, and when thawed, they are very close to fresh in taste and texture. The frozen meal is increasingly popular in time-starved American households. If the meal can be heated in a microwave, total time from freezer to table can be less than five minutes. Besides offering fresh taste and convenience, freezing is also a safe method of preservation, as most pathogens are inactivated at low temperatures.

The frozen food industry dates back to the early years of the twentieth century, when some foods were preserved by the so-called cold-pack method. Food handlers would wash and sort fruits or vegetables, then pack them in large containers holding from 30-400 lb (14-180 kg). The large containers were placed in a cold storage room for several days until the mass was frozen solid. Cold pack foods did not have the quality of modern frozen foods because of the time it took for the food to freeze. In slow freezing, the water in the food crystallizes, forming large needles of ice. These shards of ice destroy cells walls, and so when the food is thawed, it has deteriorated in taste and texture. The innovation that made the current frozen food industry possible was the invention of quick freezing by Clarence Birdseye.

Birdseye was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1886 and studied biology at Amherst College before drifting to the Canadian Arctic to work as a fur trader and trapper. Living with his family in a remote Labrador cottage, Birdseye became fascinated with freezing food, and he experimented with many kinds of meats and vegetables. Birdseye noted that freshly caught fish that froze in seconds in the sub-zero arctic air tasted perfectly palatable when later thawed and cooked. He experimented with quick-freezing other foods, including fruits and vegetables, and soon became convinced that he had a viable commerical venture. Birdseye returned from Canada in 1917 and devoted himself to inventing a mechanical freezing device. He won his first patent in 1921, and established a frozen fish company in New York in 1923.

His first frozen food business failed to spark interest, and a second company he founded in Gloucester, Massachusetts also withered. Yet Birdseye continued to develop new freezing technology, decreasing the time it took to freeze foods. In 1929, the General Foods Corporation bought out Birdseye's enterprise, paying an enormous sum for his patents. General Foods made an intensive marketing push, installing freezers in grocery stores and developing freezer rail cars for long-distance distribution. Though American families still scoffed at frozen foods, the company began to make inroads with commercial food preparers such as hospitals and schools. American soldiers ate frozen foods during World War II, and after the war, the industry took off. Home freezers grew larger, and more and more items, from vegetables to pizzas to entire meals, became available in grocery stores.

Birdseye first froze fish and vegetables by immersing them in a circulating brine cooled to about -45° F (-42.8° C). Later he developed a so-called belt froster. This passed packages of food between two sub-zero metal surfaces, and so cooled top and bottom at the same time. This greatly decreased the time it took to freeze foods. Another innovation attributed to a General Foods scientist was the process of blanching vegetables before freezing. Blanching entailed immersing the vegetables in boiling water for a few minutes to halt the activity of certain enzymes. This preserved their flavor much more effectively. Current methods of freezing

typically use the air blast method, where ultra-cooled air is blown on the food in a narrow tunnel, or by the indirect method, where the food is passed along metal plates cooled by a refrigerated liquid. Food can also be frozen cryogenically. In this method, the outer layers of the food are taken to far below their actual freezing point by passing quickly through a tunnel cooled by liquid nitrogen to as low as -80- -120° F (-62.2- -84.4° C). After the food exits the cryogenic tunnel, heat from the core of the food permeates to the outside, resulting in a final stable frozen state. Some products also use an immersion method. For foods with a viscous sauce or sticky surface, the surface might be immersed in an ultra-cooled liquid for only a few seconds, and then the food can be frozen by air-blasting.

Optimal freezing methods vary considerably with each food product. And not every food freezes well. Certain varieties of peas or strawberries for example have been found to freeze best. This might be because of their firm texture or specific sugar content. So farmers will grow these special varieties under contract with a frozen food company.

Raw Materials

The raw materials for frozen foods include whatever is to be frozen, e.g. fish, chicken, green beans, pizza. In most cases, the food is specifically cultivated or adapted for freezing. In the case of frozen desserts such as cakes and pies or entrees such as meat loaf and gravy, the recipe must be tested and altered so that it freezes well. Large companies will order optimum ingredients according to standards they have established during their product testing. For example the noodles used in a frozen pasta entree may be ordered in bulk from a distributor that makes them in a certain specified width or viscosity or flour content according to the precise need of the frozen food manufacturer. In this respect, ingredients in a frozen meal may differ from what a home cook would buy at the supermarket. But in general, frozen foods do not require a host of extra ingredients such as preservatives. Added ingredients are most frequently thickeners and stabilizers such as starch, xanthan gum, and carrageenan. These help retain the desired texture of the food after thawing. Recipes for foods destined for the freezer may also do better with the addition of a sauce or glaze, because this protects the food from dehydration when it is passed under the freezing air blast. Vegetables or fruits destined for freezing may also be picked at a different time than they would be if they were to be sold fresh, because they need to be at optimal tenderness.

The freezing equipment is typically made from stainless steel and other metals. The gas used for freezing is most commonly ammonia. Freon is used in some systems, though because it breaks down the ozone layer, ammonia is more environmentally sound. Cryogenic freezing uses liquid nitrogen.

The Manufacturing Process

The actual process of freezing a food item varies somewhat depending on what is to be frozen. Peas are the most common frozen vegetable, having virtually replaced fresh peas in the

American supermarket. The pea process is typical for many vegetables. A typical process for a frozen entrée follows.

Cultivating the peas

• 1 Peas are grown principally in Washington and Oregon and in the northern Midwest, that is, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Food processors typically contract with farmers to grow their crops according to the specifications needed for freezing. The farmers sow a variety of pea that has been approved as a good freezer. Major varieties are Dark Skin Perfection and Thomas Laxton. The harvesting schedule needs to be agreed on by both the farmer and the producer. The producer may measure the tenderness of the peas, and will also evaluate how much volume the freezing plant can accommodate. Peas need to be frozen within hours of picking, and if a backlog develops at the freezing plant, some of the peas may deteriorate.

Picking and washing

• 2 The peas may be picked by hand or automatically. Then, a machine called a viner removes them from their shells. If the processing plant is adjacent to the fields, the peas are carted there. If truck transport is necessary, they are cooled with ice water and then packed in ice for transport. At the plant, the

•

• peas are dumped into beds and sprayed with water to remove dust and dirt.

Blanching

• 3 The cleaned peas are next passed into a vat of boiling water for a few minutes. This kills enzymes that effect the taste of the peas, but it does not cook them. After blanching, the peas are cooled with water and then passed to a specific gravity sorter.

Sorting

• 4 The peas are next sorted to remove any old, starchy peas. They are immersed in water with a specified salt content. Tender peas float to the top of the brine tank, while peas with a high starch content sink to the bottom. The tender peas are then sprayed with clean water to remove the salt, and they pass to an inspection area.

Inspection

• 5 In the inspection area, workers glance over the peas as they move along a belt. Nimble workers pick out any discolored or otherwise off peas, and also any rocks or other field detritus that may have made it this far.

Clarence Birdseye

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Clarence "Bob" Birdseye attended Amherst College for two years before leaving in 1912 in order to indulge his spirit of adventure by fur-trading and trapping in Labrador, Canada. Birdseye returned to Labrador in 1916 with his new wife and infant. In order to preserve the few fresh vegetables that found their way to Labrador by ship, Birdseye began experimenting with the Eskimo method of quick-freezing foods. He stored fresh cabbages in a barrel with sea water which froze quickly in the subzero Arctic climate. Birdseye also experimented with quick-freezing fish and caribou meat. When thawed, these foods remained tender and fresh-flavored, unlike previous methods involving slow cold storage.

Birdseye returned to the United States in 1917 determined to develop commercial methods of rapid freezing, experimenting with an electric fan, cakes of ice, and salt brine. In 1923, he invested everything he had in Birdseye Seafoods, marketing frozen fish. In 1924, he and three partners founded General Seafoods in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which became the first company to use the technique of rapid dry freezing of foods in compact, packageable blocks.

The Postum Company bought Birdseye's business and 168 patents in 1929 for $22 million. The company renamed itself General Foods and marketed its frozen foods under the Birds Eye trademark.

After the sale, Clarence Birdseye devoted himself to more inventing, obtaining over 300 patents, including ones for an infrared heat lamp, a whale-fishing harpoon, a method of dehydrating foods, and a spotlight for store window displays.

Packaging and freezing

• 6 Packaging may precede freezing, or the peas may be individually quick frozen and then boxed, depending on the processing plant. Freezing could be by any of the standard methods. If they are frozen before packing, the peas might pass through a blast tunnel where ultra-cooled air freezes them. Or they may be loaded on a belt that brings them into contact with metal plates cooled from below by chilled ammonia. If they are packaged before freezing, the sealed boxes may be loaded into trays. The trays are stacked in a multi-plate freezer, which brings the pea packages into contact with chilled plates both above and below. Then workers load the frozen packages into shipping crates and move them to a cold storage room to await shipping.

Testing the frozen entrée recipe

• 7 A large company that wishes to bring out a new frozen meal will first test the recipe extensively in a test kitchen. Ingredients from different distributors will be tried out to find which ingredients retain their qualities in the freezer, and which taste best. The company will garner consumer feedback by asking test customers to try the meal at home, heating it both in a conventional oven and in a microwave oven. The final recipe may be achieved after months of testing and evaluating.

Pilot production

• 8 Before moving to full-scale production, a major manufacturer will devote some time to pilot production of the new frozen dish. Major frozen food producers may have a separate facility just for test runs, or the manufacturing plant may have one production line that it diverts. Here different cooking processes may be tried, for example to determine exactly how long to cook separate ingredients. All the bugs in the process should be worked out at this stage.

From the oven to the freezer

• 9 When everything is running smoothly at the pilot production stage, the manufacturer begins to produce the frozen meal in quantity. The dish is cooked and assembled on a tray. Usually a hot meal does not need a cool-down period before moving to the freezer. It may be frozen by one of three standard methods. It can be "naked" air blasted, that is, sent through an air-blast freezer tunnel in its pre-packaged state. It may be cryogenically frozen in the same manner. Or it may be packaged, and then air-blasted.

Packaging

• 10 In all but the very smallest frozen food operations, once the meal has passed through the freezer, all the packing stages are fully automatic. The frozen meal on its tray passes on a belt to mechanical equipment that bags it, puts it in a carton, and then stacks the cartons in a case. The cases are then put on pallets, and this stage too is often completely automatic. If workers are palletizing the cartons, they are dressed in cold-weather gear for protection. The pallets are stored in a warehouse cooled to between 0- -20° F (-17.8- -28.9° C).

Distribution

• 11 All further distribution of the frozen food should be carried out at 0° F (- 17.8° C) or cooler. In other words, trucks or rail cars that carry the pallets should be kept to this temperature, and so should warehouses, storerooms, and freezer cases where the cases are later stored.

Quality Control

Frozen foods must be carefully inspected both before and after freezing to ensure quality. When vegetables arrive at the processing plant, they are given a quick overall inspection for general quality. The peas are inspected visually again as in step five, above, to make sure that only the appropriate quality peas go on to the packaging and freezing step. Laboratory workers also test the peas for bacteria and foreign matter, pulling random samples from the production line at various points. The packaged, frozen vegetables are also tested randomly by lab workers who cook and taste them. The freezing equipment is also cleaned at specified intervals, so that it is completely sterile. Manufacturers of freezing equipment work with food producers to develop machines that are easy to clean and maintain. The equipment manufacturers may also work with their customers to check and repair the machinery so that it works the way it is supposed to. For frozen meals, if any meat is used, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has oversight, and will send inspectors to make sure the manufacturer is maintaining its equipment properly and that the meat is kept at proper temperatures throughout the production process. However, if a frozen meal contains no meat, it is up to the manufacturer itself to maintain ideal conditions, and no government agency is directly responsible for quality control.

The Future

In the late 1990s, the frozen food industry was expanding both within the U.S. market and abroad. The industry's biggest push was so-called home meal replacement, that is, whole frozen meals that took the place of cooking from scratch. More consumers were willing to trade the convenience of a frozen meal for the satisfaction of making their own dinner from fresh foods. This meant that the industry was challenged to come up with more elaborate frozen dishes, which required more testing and experimentation to pull off than the relatively simple frozen vegetables or waffles. Food scientists are still working out the chemistry and physics of frozen foods, studying for example the relationship between low-molecular weight sugars and high-molecular weight stabilizers in a recipe in order to better predict what foods will freeze well.

Cryongenic freezing is also a relatively new freezing method that may be gaining adherents. As not all foods benefit from being frozen this way, some equipment manufacturers are designing multiple-use machines that combine freezing methods.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:-

Primary –

1. Comparitive study of modern trade, food service and traditional trade of Mccain

2. Market penetration of Mccain frozen food product in Pune

Secondary –

1. To study market share of Mccain frozen food product

2. To know all competitive brands of Mccain frozen food

3. To assess the brand awareness of Mccain in frozen food segment

4. To find out on which basis customer prefer Mccain frozen food product

Research Methodology

Definition and concept

Definition: research is defined as the process which includes defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organizing and evaluating data; making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing and conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis. .

Research comprises of defining and redefining problems of formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions, collecting organizing and evaluating data, making deductions and reaching conclusions and carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulated hypothesis.

Characteristics of research

1. Research is always directed to solution of a problem

2. Research is always based upon observable evidences without finding facts you cannot do generalization. The value of generalization is not true

3. Research involves accurate observation and description. Only necessary observation shall be noted.

4. Research gives emphasis on development of theories, principles and generalization findings after a particular research can be used to formulate a theory

5. Research is characterized by systematic and logical procedure. To gain solution one need to be systematic and the methods used should be logical.

6. Research is marked by patience, research should have lot of patience and his observation should not be made in hurry

7. Research requires that the research has full expertise on the problem being studied. Researcher should have clear cut idea of what the problem is and how to go about it. Researchers should have full knowledge about it.

8. Research is replicable some other person can do similar type of research

9. A researcher requires the skill of writing a research report. Researcher shall have full knowledge of the report writing

TYPES OF RESEARCH

The basic types of Research are as follows

1. Descriptive Research

Descriptive research includes survey and fact finding enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. The main characteristics of this method are that the researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what happened or what is happening.

2. Analytical Research

The type of Research in which the researcher has to use facts or information already available, and analyze them to make critical evaluation of the material is known as Analytical Research.

3. Applied Research

It aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an industrial or business organization. A Research aimed at certain solutions (say, a solution) facing a concrete social or business problem is an example of Applied Research.

4. Fundamental Research

It is a type of Research which is mainly concerned with generalizations and formulating a theory.

Research concerning some natural phenomenon or related to pure mathematics are examples of Fundamental Research. Also, research studied, concerning human behavior carried on with a view to make generalizations about human behavior are also examples of this type of Research.

5. Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research is based on the measurement of quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomenon that can be expressed in terms of quality.

6. Qualitative Research

It is concerned with the Qualitative phenomenon. Through this type of research we can analyze the various factors which motivate people to behave in a particular manner or which make people like or dislike a particular thing.

7. Conceptual Research

Conceptual Research is that related to some abstract idea or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts to reinterpret existing ones.

8. Empirical Research

This type of research relies on experience or observation alone, often without due regard to system and theory. It is data based research, coming up with conclusions which are capable of being verified by observations or experiment.

RESEARCH PROCESS

Research process consists of a series of steps or actions required for effectively conducting research. The following are the steps that provide useful procedural guidelines regarding the conduct of research:

(1) Formulating the research problem;

(2) Extensive literature survey;

(3) Developing hypothesis;

(4) Preparing the research design;

(5) Determining sample design;

(6) Collecting data;

(7) Execution of the project;

(8) Analysis of data;

(9) Hypothesis testing;

(10) Generalization and interpretation, and

(11) Preparation of the report or presentation of the results. In other words, it involves the formal write-up of conclusions

QUESTIONARIES

Name………………………………………………

Add………………………………………………...

Nature of business………………………………….

1. Which Brands of frozen food product you keep in your store?

A. McCain

B. Godrej yummiez

C. Sumeru

D. Al Kabeer

E. Himalayan Veg

2. Out of those brands which brand you sell more?

A. McCain

B. Godrej yummiez

C. Sumeru

D. Al Kabeer

E. Himalayan Veg

3. On which basis that brand sells more?

a. Low price

b. Quantity

c. Nutrition

d. Cooking time/method

4. Which package size’s sells is more?

a. Trial pack

b. Medium size pack

c. Large size pack

5. Are you satisfied with the margin given by the company?

a. Yes

b. No

6. Which brand gives you more margin?

A. McCain

B. Godrej yummiez

C. Sumero

D. Al Kabeer

E. Himalayan Veg

7. Do you keep McCain food product in your store?

a. Yes

b. No

8. If Yes then What is the response of McCain food product in the market?

a. Fair

b. Average

c. Good

d. Very good

e. Excellent

9. What kind of service you get from company?

10. Which Brand do you think is the Competitor of the mccain food product?

11. On which ground they compete with mccain food product?

a. Margin

b. Service

c. Credit period

d. Packing

12. What changes would you like to see in our product?