Press Report
LONDON, ENGLAND, May 2, 2004: Pub goers in England have been discovering the crunchier side of Indian cuisine. In most British pubs, the humble poppadum from south India has become the favoured fritter, nudging ahead of french fries. Spurring the poppadum success is a Chennai-based company which exports two million poppadums a day to retail chains like St Michael, Sharwoods, Phileas Fogg, Knorr, Marks & Spencers, Waitrose, Morrisons, Tesco, Assda, Sainbury and Safeway. McDonalds too has shortlisted it for its outlets. “Our poppadums have emerged as one of the favorite light munches in England with 80 per cent of our products being consumed by non-Indians. They are light on the palate as well as on the calorie-meter unlike other short-eats,” pointed out M Lankalingam, MD of Lanson Ventures, a US$11 million company.
The British romance with poppadum began in 1978 when Lankalingam’s father Murugesu discovered that only French fries were served with beer. He decided to introduce the poppadum — called appalam in the South — and tied up with Sharwoods for its marketing. Appalams are hand-made from a paste of Indian grams and lentil and sun-dried for frying. So Murgesu had to ensure perfect quality and hygiene to satisfy his British customers. Today, at each Lanson factory, bio-tech labs test the paste for quality and consistency and a rigorous hygiene routine is followed. “Machines cannot make good poppadums and only when they are sun dried do they retain their original flavour. We’re experimenting with flavors, rolling out 200 varieties,” said Raja Chandran Prakash, GM, Lanson.
Importers in the UK can now unpack poppadums, fry them and repack them as ready-to-eat fritters, which account for 65 per cent of the UK market. Uncooked poppadums, which have to be deep fried in oil or in microwaves, are also sold in England. The next stop for the poppadum is the United States where, Lankalingam believes, lies a huge untapped market. Time to have the Yankees crunching.