“About 30% of the total agricultural produce in our country is wasted. Processing it can minimise this to an extent,” says S Karthikeyan, Chief Executive of Eka Foods. He has recently launched a ready-to-cook range of pulses called Kwik Pack in Coimbatore. The range includes kabuli and kala channa, rajma, peanuts and horse gram.
“I worked as an electrical engineer and manufactured computer chips in the US for 15 years before coming back to India. My family has an agricultural background and I always wanted to do something related to agriculture and food. That is why I set up this company to combine my interest in production with agriculture.” He started production in June in a 2000 sq ft unit at Nethaji Nagar, Nanjundapuram Road.
Karthikeyan sources his raw material in bulk from Salem and Coimbatore once a month. “I follow the standard canning procedure that is more than 200 years old.” The pulses are first cleaned manually to remove stones. It is then washed thoroughly and soaked in water for 12 hours before being washed again thrice. “The pulses are then boiled and stored in brine in a multi-layer barrier pack. These containers are then fed into the steriliser at a specific temperature and pressure for a fixed time to kill the bacteria. This process increases its shelf life to one year.” But the content has to be consumed within two days if opened and not refrigerated. The container is also re-usable.
“The sodium content in the brine is very little. If you want to remove the salt, all you have to do is rinse the pulses in cold water before cooking it. There is no nutrition loss in this process. Rajma is rich in folic acid and calcium, horse gram has high protein with a low glycemic index, peanut is rich in protein, folic acid and iron. Kabuli and kala channa are both high in fibre and proteins. As the pulses are already soaked and boiled, they are ready to cook.” He has trained three women to help with the manufacturing.
“The production is according to order. We have a capacity of 500 packs a day.” He sends his samples to the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru, regularly for quality checks. His future plans? “To tie up with farmers and source my pulses directly from them and to launch our website soon.”
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The price range is from ₹70 to ₹85
Each container weighs 450 gm and contains 250 gm of pulses
Available in Palamudir Nilayam, Thudiyalur, Arts College Road and Trichy Road; Nilgiris, R.S Puram; and Sri Chennis Super Market, Saravanampatti
Available online at www.facebook.com/kwikpack/ or in amazon.in
Call 8300412011 for more details
Door delivery available
