Bakeries have been maintaining their own SOPs in cleaning but the new Act, which allows for modernisation, as of today has very few takers. On the contrary, the system of cooking over open wood fires continues even today. “Wood fired bakeries have a long way to go in terms of automated cleaning,” says Dr Sheikh Abdullah, Director, Kwality Bakery. “They don’t fall under the purview of the Food Safety Act, as they are either small in size or are 10 years old and can do away with the guidelines laid for hygiene.”
The transition is largely being noticed in big bakeries like Kwality, Wibs, Britannia and Modern Foods but the scenario is bleak where small bakeries are concerned.
र60-100 per day. Staff performing jobs manually is a common sight even in Five Star bakeries in India.”
Apart from the easy availability of labour, another factor which restricts automation in India is the high cost of cleaning machines. Besides, the maneuverability of cleaning equipment in bakeries is constricted. Existing bakeries are not outsourcing the cleaning jobs to private contractors as cleaning is a 24×7 job and better managed by the in house staff. Moreover, a contractor charges on per sqft basis adding to the cost.
The wood fired bakeries require roof top fan rotators to maintain the indoor temperature. These are indigenous and locally available at a minimum cost of र7,000.
Scope for automation in Indian bakeries
र3000 crore bakery industry of India caters to the mass consumption need for bread, biscuits, pastries, cakes, buns, rusk and other items.
Most bakeries in the unorganised segment operating on wood fired ovens have crude production processes. The implementation of FSSAI Act in such places would require strategic awareness programmes and education. While in the cities people are hygiene conscious to an extent, in remote areas the concept is unknown.
Training the staff hailing from remote areas of Bihar, UP and Jharkhand poses a big challenge. “We are currently training the staff of several bakeries based on the new act, through our Associations like India Bakers’ Association, Bombay Bakers’ Association and the Society of Indian Bakers. We conduct seminars to educate them about the FSSAI Act and circulars are given out regularly to help them abide by the rules,” Hemavand explains.
Brands like Cremica, Britannia, Wibs and Kwality have been strictly following SOPs in accordance to the guidelines, as stipulated in the FSSAI Act, because they have to maintain their credibility in the market and also face stiff competition with the rival companies both in the unorganised and organised segments.
Some bakery owners lease out their facilities to contractors for a stipulated time. Since most of the contractors are non-professionals, they are not answerable to the management. This leads to laxity in terms of putting a proper workflow of hygiene and cleaning systems. Bombay Bakers’ Association has a membership of 2500 bakers, but most of the members are not aware of FSSAI Act.
“In order to ensure that our staff is healthy and disease free, we have appointed private doctors, who do regular monthly medical check ups and issue certificates accordingly.“– Dr Sheikh Abdullah
Dr Abdullah says, “We can educate them area-wise, wherein Mumbai city and the other adjoining areas could be divided zone wise, like Greater Mumbai can be divided into Central, Western and Eastern suburbs covering areas like Govandi, Shivaji Nagar, Kurla, Cheetah Camp and Dharavi, which has maximum number of bakeries.”
Cleaning Systems
The raw material in bakeries are stored in designated areas like flour, ghee and sugar are put on in separate shelves, away from the floor area in a vacuum packed room, equipped with sanitizers and deodorizers. The small oven rooms are maintained at a certain temperature for products like khari, toast and bread. “I have a contract system with a supplier, who manages a fleet of refrigerated vans and delivers products to respective outlets in a seamless manner. Waste disposal in the baking process is minimal and is taken care of by the Municipal Corporation. For installing chimney for effluent gases, special permission from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) is required,” Hemavand informs.
At Shapur Bakery, machines are cleaned every four hours and HACCP guidelines for personal hygiene are strictly followed diligently. “As per the FSSAI Act, staff need to be made aware about hand washing and wearing of gloves and caps while dealing with food products. Not conforming to the act can attract penalty,” adds Hemavand.
“As per the FSSAI Act, staff need to be made aware about hand washing and wearing of gloves and caps while dealing with food products. Not conforming to the act can attract penalty.”– Hemavand Namdarian
As per the guidelines of the Factory Act, Kwality Bakery in Mumbai has set up a panel of certified government doctors who verify the personal hygiene of the staff and perform medical check-ups for any disease on an annual basis. “In order to ensure that our staff is healthy and disease free, we have appointed private doctors, who do regular monthly medical check and issue certificates accordingly.”
“At Kwality, employees and their dependents are entitled for hospitalisation and medical care in any Government hospital under the ESIC scheme,” informs Dr Abdullah.
The bakery has an in house pest control system in place to manage pest twice daily. Tanveer Pest Control manages pests like rodents in the bakery. Ingredients and other raw materials are tested at NABL accredited external laboratory.
Fungal treatment is very necessary in bakeries, as it can cause irreparable damage to the products. This can happen if the residual matter after the production is not properly disposed off or cleaned. Fungus hampers shelf life of the product drastically. “The five designated areas marked by us are cleaned on a regular basis by a dedicated staff,” adds Dr Abdullah.
Bread products are baked at temperatures as high as 275oC to get the desired product and hygiene levels. Most of the bread varieties have a short shelf life and have to be sent to the market very fast. Kwality bakery has its own fleet of vans for delivery. There are other distributors also whose services are required in the process. Products are labelled as per the product category giving details of its shelf life.
Kwality Bakery also caters to institutional clients like Railways, D’mart, Hyper City Malls and organizations like L&T, HPCL, BPCL and Crompton Greaves. Company officials pay regular visits to the bakery unit in Andheri to ascertain the hygiene levels and quality of the products.
HR Policy and Hygiene Workflow
The hygiene workflow and process in big bakeries run through eight designated areas of production. The entire process involves godown, flour shifter, mixer, divider, rounder, inter prover, final prover, oven, rounder table, cooling tunnel, slicer and packaging and finally despatch godown. There are colour coded dusters for respective machines.
The panel of the slicers is opened and washed at regular intervals in the units. Damages during slicing, at oven or during handling, are managed by a well-equipped monitoring system in place. There is a separate kitchen area for savouries, where all fried items like patties, samosa, rolls, veg puff, non-veg puff are made. Bakeries procure cleaning solutions and pesticide prescribed by BMC through the respective agencies. Pest control in most of the bakeries is done three times in a month.
Better productivity through sustainable hygiene practices in bakeries can draw a good amount of business and generate surpluses by utilising the existing resources. In this way, bakeries can plough back the surplus for expanding infrastructure.
Eco Friendly Products and Automation
The quality of products through Diesel or Electric fired oven is of superior quality and hygienic by virtue of automated systems. There have been attempts to get the bakery industry to convert to fuels, which are perceived to be more eco-friendly such as electricity, diesel, gas, etc. In this case, bakers are faced with the problem of financing capital required to make the transition from wood-fired ovens to a different oven.
Automation for cleaning in bakeries has taken a setback because of the space constraint. More than 80% of the wood fired ovens in Mumbai city is running day and night and require less supervision. But, a wood fired oven requires a lot of space as compared to a diesel fired one. A Diesel fired oven of double the capacity would require a space of minimum 70sqft and wood fired one of a single capacity would require a space of 200sqft.
The commercial space in a prime area in Mumbai will cost 30, 000 to 40,000 per sqft. Being moderate, the cost can go down as low as र20,000 per sqft. The bakery unit was earlier permissible in residential locations and near the high rises, as it falls under the service industry. But now only diesel and gas fired are allowed because of the regulatory norms and infrastructural constraint. In terms of capital investment in land and building, a prime location in Mumbai will cost र50 lakh to र1.5 crore. Most of the bakeries are running in slums on leave and license basis.
ABC of FSSAI
In order to motivate bakeries in Mumbai to adhere to the rules of new Foods Safety and Standards Act, Society of Indian Bakers has released a list of 26 good manufacturing practices (GMPs) for the sector referred to as the ‘ABC of FSSAI’. SIB has simplified the process with a check list and issued it to all the manufacturers.
The list has guidelines for applying and obtaining license, attending food safety awareness meetings, educating the staff on the Act, exhibiting food safety posters in the factory, removing expired date goods because it is a health risk, providing clean and proper uniforms, conducting medical examination for all, whitewashing premises periodically, using processed water for manufacturing, keeping first aid kit at an accessible point, taking special attention in preparing the labels, buying raw materials from reputed suppliers, removing cobwebs and unwanted materials from the factory, washing floors daily, storing all finished products safely, taking effective pest control measures, ensuring mandatory use of gloves, keeping required packing material, maintaining records for stores and production, keeping delivery vehicles clean, ensuring compulsory hand wash and provision for dedicated area to clean vessels.
The Jail Factory
The automated imported ovens at Thane Prison’s bakery and Delhi’s Tihar Jail (TJ’s) Bakery speak volumes about the success of Jails as a potential market yet to be tapped.
