Vidur's mind went back again and again to his cousin Brinda, a science professor, and her husband Thyagaraj, who was head of Corporate Ethics at an IT major. They were the ‘educated-upper middle class’ with every opportunity to access knowledge. But they had been completely clueless about cooking oils.
If Thyagu and Brinda were making mindless choices about their cooking oils, did that also represent the state of the people? How did people make choices, really?
Going home that afternoon, Vidur stopped by at a kirana store to buy flax seeds. A young customer was calling out (as it happens in kirana stores), ‘Bhaiyya best oil kaunsa hai?’ The man replied, “Koi bhi le lo, sab achha hai.”
Young lady: Rs 80-85 wala dena.
NOW Vidur had not heard this line before. The shopkeeper put out a jar of brand X oil. “Frying ke liye na? Yeh best hai.” When the lady had left, Vidur engaged the retailer.
Vidur: Is frying oil special?
Shop man: Party budget must be tight… When they have to serve samosas, kachoris, oil consumption is more…. So they buy cheap oils.
VIDUR read the pack print of brand X. He was stunned by the text. It said: “Our Y seed oil is original. It has no odour or wax. The MUFA in the oil helps your cholesterol level and protects you from heart diseases. The Vitamin E heals many skin conditions. Brand X is most preferred refined oil by households and institutional users such as hotels, canteens, food stalls, caterers, etc., for its reusable quality.”
Vidur was alarmed. The literature on the oil closed with claiming it was good for one’s health, basing on the MUFA. But the PUFA was huge. Whence the claim to ‘protect you from heart diseases’? How can any oil protect anyone from heart diseases? The claim about healing skin was over the top. And the grandiose declaration — ‘preferred oil of canteens and food courts, for its reusable quality’ — angered him. Here, he was fighting tooth and nail asking people NOT to reuse oil as it released free radicals and led to eventual increase in LDL, thickening of arteries and many more conditions. How could manufacturers make such statements on their packets? Who audited such claims?
So much confusion! What we manufacture, what we need, what we sell, what we reveal about what we sell and what we lead the consumer to believe…! Manufacturers knew the whole nine yards about animal fats being mostly MUFA and SFA; and vegetable oils (except olive, palm and coconut) being rich in PUFA. But Vidur worried that PUFA was highly unstable, chemically. Outside our bodies, it goes rancid fast. Inside our bodies it reacts to proteins and creates toxins. And it promoted inflammation — that was at the heart of every health problem. Communication on oils was not enough.
Vidur called Aparna, “Will you come with me on a retail round? I want to see what people buy and why.” Vidur’s interest was specifically cooking oils. India was an interesting country and people used a variety of oils. How did they plan it? The lady at kirana had set off a panic button.
At Grow Supermarket, Aparna led the way to the oils section, while Vidur looked around at the variety of customers. For a Saturday, the store looked nice and full.
Anumati was looking at a brand of oils and asking the aisle attendant, “There used to be a vanaspati before. My grandma used to use that. My home and even clothes had that fragrance!” Seeing Vidur, she smiled.
Vidur: If you won’t mind my asking, what oil do you use, since you mentioned cooking oils?
Anumati: Actually I use more than one type of oil. Olive oil for pasta and Italian, mustard for specific preparations, hmm… And for non -specific cooking, I use any of the refined oils.
Vidur: Why so?
Anumati: Eh? Any of the regular oils! It does not matter! Refined oils at least have no transfats, I am told and that makes it even better. What is wrong with refined oils? They are refined!
Vidur: Refining has different connotations in different kinds of oils…
Anumati: Then what about margarine? That should be good?
Vidur: That would be by far the worst. Let me say in simple terms, it is hydrogenated and bad for you.
Anumati: Maybe you are not fully aware... but it has no cholesterol.
Vidur: Did someone tell you that?
Anumati: My friends all use it…
Vidur was alarmed. There! ‘My friend told me’, ‘My mother always used this’, ‘I saw on a cookery show….’ Even a little bit of Google would help, but nobody had dependable information on oils.
Anumati glazed a bit, then subtly changing the subject she said, “Here this oil, it says, low smoking point. What is this about smoking point?”
Vidur: High smoke point means you can use it for high heat or continuous heat processes like frying. Every oil has a smoking point. If heated beyond this point, the oil breaks down and its constituents like minerals, enzymes and compounds — become rancid.
Anumati: Seriously? Oh, heck. My maid burns the tadka (seasoning) almost every day. Is that bad?
Vidur: I think so. The oil is damaged. To increase their shelf life oils are treated and refined and what not as now they can be used for more purposes. This also means the oil is rid of essential components. Now, olive oil is produced using mechanical processes, not heat. So, its nutrients are retained, but…. some olive oils are blends. So, read the ingredients. You can get misled.
Another customer, Damini, joined in. “I refrigerate my oils. One of the first things I learnt in the US is that exposure to the elements — be it water or heat — is bad for oils. My sesame and walnut oil stay in the fridge. Oils must not be kept next to the cooking range. It is so common in India to keep cooking oil in katoris, plastic bottles and what not, right next to the gas stove. The heat makes it go rancid fast. No oil marketer tells you this. I am sure they do not know this!”
Aparna: Ma’am, what is the issue with heat?
Damini: The place next to your cooking range is hot. That causes the enzymes to breakdown — we can’t know, but it is harming the oil and hence you.
Vidur: To heat and water, I will add light. Remember ‘store in a cool dry place’? Light, not just sunlight, but even your tubes and bulb lights age your oil if they are out in the open. This becomes important because people buy 5 kg jerry cans to save money. But it is sitting out in the open. You need to cupboard it.
Damini: Really? This oil pouch is transparent… so now? They never tell the consumer this! I read “cool, dry place” on everything from henna to statins to softeners. With so much information going around, it is nicer to give the logic than instruct. Why is communicating with the consumer not respected or desired? This is something I find unusual here. Ads talk down to a consumer or talk sideways. They glorify you like you are a child or ignore you altogether. But no ad tells the consumer what she needs to know.
Now more people gathered around. A young lady, Preeti, joined them with a ‘Hi I work nearby... is this a survey? What’s going on?’
Vidur: Oh, we are talking about cooking oils. What oils do you use?
Preeti: I cook only pastas hence I use olive oil. But for all the frying, we use some cheap oil like …um ...anything really… oh, ha ha… don’t even know! Never paid attention. We have always asked for the oil by name and our driver gets it.
Vidur: Why cheap oil?
Preeti: So little gets used in frying and rest we have to throw na?
Vidur: But whatever goes into the fried food, goes into your body, does it not? And don’t be misled, a lot of oil gets into the food when you fry.
Cheap oils for frying? It echoed what took place at the kirana.
Preeti: But I was reading on the Net, this lady who runs a cookery blog, lives in America, famous and all that, she was saying you can reuse oil. She even gives ways of doing it. So I have been following her methods.
Vidur: The Internet is an uncensored place. Anyone can say what they want, where all pent up expressions find place.
Damini: Some TV commercials seem to talk irresponsibly. There are all levels of understanding in our society. Ads should cater to everyone.
Someone asked Vidur, “Do oils give you cholesterol?”
Vidur: Cholesterol is built inside the body. Vegetable oils do not have cholesterol; only animal fats have. So, all foods containing animal fat, eggs, fish, chicken, beef, all dairy fats… are especially high in cholesterol — because these are centres where cell activity is high.
Like egg yolk, because the baby chick needs it for its own cell growth. Milk because the calf needs it. And so on. Like organ meats — liver, kidney, brain, foie gras, chicken liver, pork brain — which are considered as delicacies and eaten significantly for their vitamin A and folic acid. But these are centres of cholesterol and toxins, as these are also processors in that animal’s body. And SFAs.
Damini: Wow… didn’t know that.
Vidur: Interesting, no? Cholesterol is crucial for cell building and replenishing. Hence growth.
Jonita: What is this SFA?
Vidur: These are one kind of fatty acids along with MFA and PFA. These acids raise cholesterol levels and the American Heart Association prescribes no more than 5-6 per cent of your daily calorie intake to be SFA, so we are saying 100 calories can be SFA.
Jonita: Eh? And how am I to calculate how much I am consuming? This is stupid. Ok, (She reached for a packet of biscuits in her trolley). This biscuit says it contains 21 per cent SFA. And what does that mean to me, 21 per cent of what?
Stephen: Exactly… who are they communicating all this jazz to? If to me, then speak my language!
Jonita: Today I have eaten a regular lunch, four biscuits, some walnuts, let me think… oh, yes, one laddoo, eggs for breakfast…. So now, what amount of SFA have I eaten today? Hello, may I have an SFA meter?!
Vidur: I agree. Really insane.
Jonita: Now I am angry. Why are they telling me this biscuit has 21 per cent SFA? How do I apply it to my life?
Vidur: We are eating more processed foods today than we ever did. And these foods contain SFA. But tell me, these questions must have come to you earlier too. Did you not ask someone?
Vishal: Ask who? My doctor himself said research is changing everyday. Now, if researchers themselves are unsure then what do you think we consumers can do? I then asked my friend in a foods company and he said there has been active lobbying against coconut oil and butter and mustard oil and some others to make a case for vegetable oils. Do you realise what we go through just trying to know?
Stephen: One day PUFA was all I needed (if you went by cooking oil ads) to save myself, and within three years, it was the worst thing I could have! One minute margarine was the best alternative to butter and the next minute margarine was poison!
Rajashree: I only wonder how we have so much sunflower oil in India when we are not even producing that much sunflower seeds. Then, it all must be blends, and who knows what edible oils they mix!
Vidur: Varies from brand to brand. Have you read the print on your oil bottle?
Susheela: Well…. Ha ha. I now recall that I have seen these PUFA-MUFA things on the bottles. I thought they must be some mandatory excise requirement. I never thought it was addressed to me!
Gayatri: Ma’am, even if they say: “This is For You, Consumer”, how will we make sense of what monounsaturated blah means to my cooking? This is it, this is it! Who is the consumer of cooking oil? Who are they selling to? Who is the one who needs to directly know what poison she is buying? Who directly impacts the end product coming out of cooking oils? The one who cooks, buys or the one who eats? Both the cook and the one who eats needs to be told about health and harm!
Damini: Sorry, my mother-in-law does all the cooking at home and she does not read English. And if you wrote that in Hindi, she will think these are some government requirements. So, why are those numbers there? To serve whom?
Gayatri: There is no responsibility for anything in our country and this is what is making me very, very, very angry. My son eats doughnuts and huge tubs of popcorn, which use hydrogenated fats… Can movie theatres guarantee that they are not using hydrogenated oils?
Damini: You don’t need to go that far. Even your microwaveable popcorn comes with transfats and so does peanut butter.
Gauri: But it does say ‘no transfats’! Here, I just bought peanut butter…
Damini: But please check if the ingredients say ‘partially hydrogenated oils’. If so, then you have transfats coming from the back door.
Vidur: This is the other thing. We can never tell what the manufacturer means when he says my product does not contain transfats. You have to be careful.
everyone looked at each other, but definitely horrified.
Vidur: Many of you young folk. You live away from home, order food in. You don’t know whether your friendly dhaba uses bad oil, reheated oil… You go by taste! Who knows how many times the oil has been reused. Do you know about the hydrogenated fats in the chips and namkeens you buy? Do we know?
Vidur could see these were all educated people and they did not ever pay attention to the ingredients on the pack, maybe as Susheela said, because they thought it was some excise requirement. These were people who knew about property and wealth tax and rights and duties and bargains and best colleges…. But they all looked surprised when he asked them each, “Do you know what those numbers on your oil pouch means?’ They did not know. They bought oils because friend bought the same or mom has always been buying, or because TV pe dekha hai. But the ad itself, he knew, communicated zilch about the ingredients.
Jonita: Seriously, doesn’t anyone feel any commitment to making all this known and simple to the end user? Really, this is cheating the people.
Vani: But there is money in your confusion!
Stephen (giving her a thumbs up): Fast foods do not come under packaged foods. So under Indian laws, there is no regulation that mandates them to reveal or display fat and salt in their foods. All packaged foods companies will say they are adhering to legal requirements. But they are not telling me what I need to know!
Susheela: So, who should be telling us about the health implications of what foods we are using? Manufacturers? Retailers? Government? Google? I happen to know transfats are a major cause of Type 2 diabetes.
Vidur was disheartened. He left the customers in agitated discussion and went to meet the head of sales of the supermarket, Aniket Wahi.
“I will say our customers can be put into two boxes: one knowledgeable, know health and brand. They won’t go by price. They look for healthy oil. Source of information? Friends’ experience. They mostly buy olive oil. So let’s say 15-20 per cent of consumers look for health and not price.
The remaining 70-80 per cent go for price point, low priced oils. No no-no-no, no brand loyalty. Arre! I challenge you, if you now launch a lower priced oil, at least 40 per cent will convert. In a shop, there are some categories that are price sensitive; sugar and oil are top of the list.
We have offers going on them. It is the deciding point. Retailer will give price off below MRP. Everyone sells oil and aata below MRP. Because oil is a commodity and its price fluctuates. This price fluctuation is factored into the MRP. No, no, we don’t call that ‘inflated’. It is pegged to a point that absorbs price fluctuation. So, if commodity price goes up, MRP does not go up. Sorry? No, not everybody, only some branded retailers do not discount oils. But all others do.
“Oil defines the buying behaviour of a consumer. Where a consumer buys her entire basket from one shop, he will give a price off. All oils? No, no, no. On healthy oils, nobody gives discounts. Its cost of sales is already very high. Hence mark-ups for retailer is also low. So, they won’t discount it.
Also behaviourally, consumers too do not seek discounting in such oils. It would take away their perceived premiumness from the oil. They get suspicious. But other oils used in households for frying, they use the cheap variety. Oh, yes, they will specifically buy cheap oils for frying.
Vidur: Do consumers ask you about health benefits?
Aniket: Not significantly. In the modern trade format, the shop floor boys and girls are not trained to know about health, etc. See, no consumer comes and asks for cheap oil. But if an oil has an offer they will definitely buy. Sometimes we do have offers; then, they buy the cheaper oils for the maids and servants. Arre, saab, how can I tell them cheaper oils are bad? They must know! Educating consumer is not high priority for retailer. We stock all oils. If you ask for a cheap oil, I will sell. I am in the business of selling. Ha ha!
Haanh… yes I will spend time on educating on those categories where my margins are high. That is the nature of the beast, sir! Ha ha ha! Margins wise, oil is the lowest. So, if I have a choice of educating a customer of olive oil, of oats and of jams, I will spend time on jam as I get higher margin on jams. My image of good oil? Woh to simple hai, sir; it is based on what sells most and not based on MUFA-PUFA. Yeh sab padhe likhe logon ke liye hai, sir!
end note: Fact finally was people did not seem to ‘choose’ an oil for purely health reasons. Even if there was a health angle, that angle was not clear even to them! Health was ‘good company’. ‘Formulation’ was not even in the consideration set. Mostly people made choices based on price, tradition, taste-habits, sometimes sku availability, and in some cases promo offers in supermarkets which was one of the worst reasons. But what surprised Vidur was that despite a gentle hum in their minds to reduce oil intake, the family purchase of oil did not seem to be going down.
Why did the marketeer not desire to educate, communicate health?
Also Read Case Analysis: Deeksha Kapur | Murali Krishnancasestudymeera@gmail.com
