As a restaurant owner of a busy diner in the heart of Lucknow, Agasthya Singh prides himself on serving freshly prepared food to a loyal clientele. But these days, Singh says he’s had to cut some corners to keep his diner and cafe afloat. A perfect case in point: when it comes to the restaurant’s always-in-demand corn cheese balls, he’s now relying on a frozen product instead of preparing his own. 

With his limited staffing, like so many restaurant operators across the country, he has struggled to find workers of late. He can’t afford to have a prep cook spend time making perfect balls when more essential tasks need to be done. Nevertheless, it’s a choice that pains Singh who was known to make in-house patties for his burgers but unfortunately is sourcing that frozen too. “I really like to make everything from scratch,” he said.

Even if the restaurant's motto is to eat fresh, there's no guarantee that what you're being served even comes close to farm-to-table quality. Frozen foods are a siren call of efficiency and economic benefits for restaurants big and small, but they aren't always labeled as such. Many restaurant proprietors are facing the very same dilemma. And like Singh, they are increasingly turning to pre-made products as a means to get by.

A Necessity Not Choice

Not that pre-made necessarily means the restaurant is just putting a dish in a microwave and then plating it. In many cases, they are using that item as a base for a dish that will be finished in-house. It’s part of what’s commonly referred to in the industry as speed scratch cooking, a faster way to prepare food but still retain some of the restaurant’s own stamp. 

“While frozen food help cut cost and ensure no wastage equally vital for us if at all there is usage is to ensure the products we use are in the best form considering health proportion and keeping the nutrients intact. As a brand, we strive to make the food as fresh as possible using in-house made raw materials owing to having our own bakery/kitchen/confectionary setup,” Dipraj Das, founder of Craft Coffee commented.

While the restaurant operators have a different points of view toward the usage of frozen products, the frozen food business stakeholders feel that it can be beneficial in many terms. “Frozen food is beneficial for restaurants who want to serve global cuisine on their plate. If any raw ingredients are not found or grown locally and can be sourced internationally, bringing the goods in frozen increases their shelf life.In today’s time, food wastage is a hazard that many restaurants want to tackle, hence they buy products with a longer shelf life and the best way to preserve products for longer is to freeze them,” Manjul Sandhu, CEO of Sweet Stuff feels.

Adding further, Suchi Sandhu, managing director at Sweet Stuff opines that frozen products solve the problem of importing gourmet goods that are not readily available in the local market, longer shelf life, cost efficiency with less wastage of food, and saving time and manpower.

Blaming the Current Economic Situation 

The matter is however not just restricted to longer shelf life and availability, the cost economic factor is playing a huge role in a shift towards frozen food. Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half the consumer price index (CPI) basket, reached a multi-month high and is expected to remain elevated due to higher vegetable and cooking oil prices globally.

The restaurant industry is facing the most inflationary pressures. The supply of grains, oil, and others has been affected a lot post-war and Covid. Also, farmers and others in the F&B industry were not prepared for the sudden rise in demand and hence there are issues in supply. The operational cost has been hiked by 10 to 12 percent, thanks to inflation. 

“Geopolitical tensions and supply line disruptions have led to massive instability in food prices. Covid-19 followed by the Russia-Ukraine has led to the shortage of several commonly-used food materials. Frozen foods help in keeping the cost of raw materials stable for the restaurant to an extent with frozen foods the owner is assured that there will not be a steep rise in prices and also there will not be any availability issues,” Kunwar Shashwat Singh of BillionBrothers Frozen Foods Pvt Ltd commented. The company has witnessed a spike in demand for frozen products across categories from new as well as established outlets.  

Can Frozen be Fresh?

The HoReCa industry has slowly been evolving to move to ready solutions. In the 90s, nobody used to use ready mayonnaise. When American garden entered India, they had a huge task ahead of them in convincing chefs and restaurateurs to switch to their readymade mayonnaise. At a certain point, every single french fries served in a restaurant or cafe was hand-cut and fried by their chefs. 

“Today, more than 90 percent of french fries served are frozen. So it would be fair to say that HoReCa clients are slowly moving towards ready solutions as it helps them cut down on costs, and wastages, and brings consistency. Taking forward the example of french fries, there is a beautiful article by Vir Sanghvi that says that frozen french fries taste way better than freshly hand-cut ones. Heston Blumenthal, one of the top chefs in the world, claims that the best way to make french fries is to flash fry them, freeze them, and give them a second fry before serving. This results in a product that is crisp on the outside and fluffy and moist on the inside. The process of using frozen french fries happens to be exactly the same. Hence, I would argue that frozen tastes much better than fresh,”  Sharan Goyal, Founder of Crozzo claimed.

Earlier this year, HyFun, a producer and exporter of frozen snacks, announced the expansion of its product portfolio with the launch of products like frozen pizzas for the QSR segment. The company promises a pizza with just seven to nine minutes of baking time, enabling QSRs to meet their customer expectations.

The company also introduced various products in its Indian portfolio i.e. Pav Bhaji Patty, Sabudana Patty, and Soya Patty. These curated products with Indian flavors and spices will be available in over 200 cities across India with HyFun’s distribution network of over 225 distributors.

Kamlesh Karamchandani, director, sales & marketing, HyFun Foods said, “QSR owners have started considering frozen snacks to save on time and effort to make tasty dishes. Especially, with the expected surge in demand QSRs are increasingly depending on frozen foods. We are eyeing a growth of 40 percent from this segment in the coming year looking at the increased demand.”

But For Some Frozen is not Fresh

But the advent of pandemics has also opened the door towards going all fresh. A small or emerging section of the industry is moving away from frozen food as the demand is shifting toward fresh and healthy consumption when eating out. According to Joy Singh of Raasta, with the advent of fresh and organic food, frozen food stockings have taken a hit in restaurants. “Since we are here to serve the customers and provide them what they want, we try and do as much fresh and much direct farm to table as possible. Frozen food is more cost viable and consistent but the entire health factor is more important today,” he commented.

Still, for some restaurant professionals, the idea of taking even the smallest of shortcuts can lead down a dangerous path and, in turn, defy what dining should be all about. Where do you draw the line? It’s a slippery slope. So, for some, they still would like to stick to the labor-intensive route, maybe by cracking every egg!