Marketed under the popular children-focused CEREGROW brand, the new sub brand is dubbed CEREGROW Grain Selection and has a strong focus on the use of traditional Indian ingredients such as ragi (finger millet) as opposed to wheat and ghee (clarified butter).
According to Nestle India, the use of such traditional Indian food ingredients has become a rising trend in the country, and a mark of good nutrition in the eyes of parents seeking out better food and beverage choices for their children.
“After the pandemic, parents are now increasingly looking for ways to integrate traditional ingredients and recipes into their children’s diets [to provide that added] confidence of assured nutrition,” Nestle India Head of Nutrition Business Vineet Singh told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“The new CEREGROW Grain Selection [builds on this trend], aiming to help parents incorporate traditional Indian ingredients such as ragi, ghee and mixed fruits into their toddlers’ diets in a format that is both nutritious and tasty.
“[The use of millets] is an ode to rediscovering the value of these grains, which have been an integral component of India’s food basket for many years – so much so that 2023 has already been declared the International Year of Millets.”
He stressed that there is also a sustainability component to this, as millets are known to be better for the environment compared to common grains such as wheat.
“Ragi is known to require less water for cultivation and is good for sustainable agriculture [which is why we selected it as a good follow-up to the original] Nestlé CEREGROW Multigrain Cereals with Milk & Fruit, which was one of our most successful launches in the recent past,” he said.
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