Leading food company Best Foods Limited organised an interactive and informative campaign in New Delhi with Dr. Aayushman Gupta, Chief Executive officer, Best Foods Limited. and nutritionist Kavita Devgan, to dispel myths surrounding rice consumption among Indians.

The campaign, earlier held in Kolkata and Hyderabad, highlights the “goodness” of rice as a staple and is supported by TNS Global Research Consultancy, a market research firm, which collated responses regarding consumption patterns and consumer perception, apprehension and preferences over three months.

Speaking on behalf of TNS Global Research Consultancy, Ruchita Jain, Associate Project Director said, “The rice category has a huge potential and hence we had taken minute details on consumer perceptions and apprehensions. First a qualitative research was conducted covering men and women groups across key metros followed by a quantitative research covering a sample of 1,330 women across Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. These women were married in the age-group of 25-45 years, totally involved in cooking. They fell under socio-economic classes A or B and were all non-rejecters of modern trade. Having conducted a research, both intensive and with all target groups who consume and cook rice, we were able to put together all data."

Elaborating on the initiative, Dr Gupta said, "Promoting guilt-free consumption of rice and the love for rice informing consumers of the health and nutritive benefits of rice has been a passion for us. Hailed now as the ICF certified (accredited by the Apex body of Indian’s most renowned Chefs) as best rice brand in the category, we have been setting new milestones.This campaign is close to my heart and I strongly feel that we will be able to build a huge connect and engage consumers with our brand and category.”

“We will retail mainly through modern retail stores since it’s difficult to reach consumers buying packaged basmati through mom-and-pop shops. Penetration is also higher in cities and towns since conversion of loose to packaged formats is far higher,” Dr Gupta added.

Nutritionist Kavita Devgan said, “ The main aim of this discussion today was to dispel the myths that have been floating around about rice as unhealthy and fattening and pass on the right information to the media who attended, as we believe that they are the influencers who in turn will actually take the facts to general public.”

Besides rice, Best Foods also offers health and wellness products and a range of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meals, including pastes and sauces. The products are available in more than 2,000 modern retail format outlets spread across India in around 200 cities. In addition to this, the company has 38 exclusive brand outlets across high footfall areas in Delhi/NCR. Best Foods products are also available in major overseas countries located in Asia-Pacific, CIS, Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America.