The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Ice cream maker bags 4 national awards

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Thursday, Dec 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Ice cream maker bags 4 national awards

Staff Reporter

Jumani brand enters contest as an underdog but emerges winner

Company wins gold medal for premium Exotica brand
DIFF walks away with prizes in all vanilla categories

–Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Laurels all the way: Ajay Kumar Vaddi, MD of Dairy Frozen Foods with his ‘Exotica’ range.

HYDERABAD: To compete with the who’s who of ice cream manufacturers in the nation requires guts all right. And then to walk away with prizes in four of the eight categories contested is no mean feat.

City-based ice cream manufacturer Dairy Ice cream and Frozen Foods Pvt. Ltd. (DIFF), more popular for its Jumani brand entered ‘The Great Indian Ice cream Contest 2008’ as an underdog, but when the curtains came down, it had the last laugh. The contest, organised under the aegis of Indian Dairy Association was held in New Delhi on December 4.

V. Ajay Kumar, Managing Director of DIFF is all exuberance. Sharing those crowning moments with The Hindu, he says, “we are a very small ice cream manufacturing company in the country. Despite our small size, we won four prizes in the eight categories.”

Medals

The company won a gold medal in premium ice cream without inclusions (no additives, like fruits, nuts etc) category for its premium Exotica ice cream brand. It also bagged two silvers in vanilla frozen dessert and chocolate frozen dessert categories for its Jumani ice creams. The fourth, a bronze was awarded in vanilla standard ice cream category.

DIFF won in all the vanilla categories, a task in itself. “To evaluate vanilla, a basic flavour of ice cream is toughest task,” Mr. Kumar says. “It is like judging who makes the best dhal in town which is also a basic dish prepared everywhere,” he relates.

R&D

The ice creams are all in-house flavours developed by a team of dairy technologists and microbiologists of the company. “A huge research and development effort over a one-year period went into their creation. We had chefs from prominent hotels tasting our products and advising us with different aspects of ice cream making, which we duly incorporated,” he discloses.

The only Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)-certified ice cream manufacturer in the State DIFF supplies its ice creams to various restaurant and hotel chains in the city and some outsourced.

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