Hike in SMP prices has hit the ice cream manufacturers adversely. Till now, SMP was being procured at say 170 to 180 INR per kg, but the year 2019 has been unpropitious for the ice cream manufacturers.
This has led the manufacturers to find alternatives to their ice cream processing so they can stay in the competition and even not compromise with their margin. Normally the end consumer sees the MRP of the product and pays the price. But it takes a hell lot of calculation at the manufacturers’ end to have their share of margin and get the correct price of the product.
The pricing strategy considers your direct and indirect cost, your target customers, the product positioning, your competitors, and finally, the profits.
When it comes to making the ice cream considering all the pricing factors and even the fluctuating SMP cost, the raw materials play an essential role in making your product successful.
Cost-effective raw materials and ingredients are significantly fetched by the industrialist nowadays to stay ahead of competitors and even have their profit margin along with the product quality.
Usually, when we make ice cream, the ingredients used are Fat, SNF, Sugar, Stabilizer and Emulsifiers, Flavors, and other inclusions.
After interaction with ice cream manufacturers, their pain point currently lies in the SMP cost, as it is approximately added at the rate of thirteen percent by volume.
Their main concern is that they cannot increase the price of the cup, and neither can they reduce the amount of ice cream after a particular limit.
And on the other hand, the competitors are equally important, or else the manufacturers have a fear that they will lose their target customers.
Usually, from the customer’s point of view, when consumers have ice cream, they want their ice cream to taste rich, melt slowly, and no other off flavors or defects be seen.
Ice cream is such an indulgence food that it needs to be perfect when scooped. Similarly, consumers are also price-conscious.
Technically speaking, when a manufacturer plays with the ratio of Fat and SNF in ice cream, there are many problems observed. Say, if we reduce fat, we won’t get the richness in the mouthfeel, and on the other hand, when we reduce SNF, we won’t have proper body and texture, which will lead to fast melting of ice cream and large ice crystal formation.
Generally, the cost of raw materials should be less than thirty percent of the manufacturing cost.
This is a huge challenge faced by manufacturers since the raw material cost is exceeding due to SMP.
Many manufacturers have approached us for a perfect solution, and Novasol Ingredients has crafted a solution for the same.
Novasol Ingredients has an excellent Research and Development facility, where we have crafted this solution.
With our technical experts, we have taken trials and made Low fat ice cream, where both fat and SNF percentage are reduced. We have made Low fat ice cream with fat less than 1.5 percent. Now making ice cream with a rich mouthfeel and good body and texture requires a proper blend of stabilizer and emulsifier.
We have made a specific blend in the brand name of “kreAmaze,” which helps you impart richness and even firm body and texture. Along with it, the addition of maltodextrin adds further to its firm body.
As we are removing maximum total solids from ice cream, we need to add something to hold the product, and hence we add maltodextrin at a low dosage.
Our R&D does not stop here; ice cream is incomplete without flavor. Also, with this SKU, where maximum quantity is sold at a minimum price, we have identified the two most common flavors. One is strawberry, and the other is vanilla. With our experience, fruity flavors go well with low-fat products, and another is rich milky vanilla flavor. We feel proud to say that we even have different flavors that can be experimented with.
Making ice cream is not the end of our research and development. Manufacturers, who commercially make ice cream, even have a cold chain through which the ice cream is transferred at different places. And after being transferred, they keep their products in the deep freeze seen in the shops. We are quite aware of the technical glitches happening in India for the cold chain.
Hence, at our R&D facility, we even do the microbial analysis and shelf-life studies. We also make temperature thawing and study the size of ice crystal formation or see if any other defects are observed. After long research, we are confident that our “kreAmaze” brand has been successful in making the perfect ice cream where the customers are satisfied.
Contact us to understand more technicalities about ice cream. Also, connect us if you want to scale up your production or want new ideas for ice cream manufacturing.
