CHENNAI: On a sweltering Wednesday noon, the aroma of urad dal flour welcomes us into Shahi Foods’ office in Koyambedu. The room is filled with over seven varieties of papad presented in three different shapes.
“All these have come dried from our factory in Uthukottai, 60 km away from here,” Arshad Khan D, export manager of Shahi Foods, says, pointing to the vertically stacked pile of papads while two helpers were busy packing and sealing the papads under his attentive watch.
“It has been 11 years since we started our homegrown brand. This year, we are introducing more flavours peri-peri and schezwan sauce, especially for kids,” he shares.
The serving journey
Papads have been a ubiquitous part of the south Indian meal since time immemorial. DK Ahmed Khan, the owner of Shahi Foods wanted people to enjoy it also as a healthy snack. With this mission, he started the food business in 1986 under the partnership of another company. After learning about the market and the interests of the customers, he started his independent organisation in 2011.
“We started with the intent to serve the Asian community all over the world, specifically for those having a liking for Indian foods and flavours,” says Ahmed. Arshad, his son, who started assisting his father in the business three years ago, agrees, “We will not sell what we don’t relish ourselves. All the products sold by us are also tested and consumed by us and the company workers.”
Talking about the adulteration in the market, he adds, “Most of us who usually consume appalams or other varieties of papad are often fooled by the cheap quality products. Companies use low-quality urad flour and instead of the prescribed calcium carbonate they use washing soda and give the customer a lot of health risks.”
He demonstrated the difference between his papads, which had a fine, smooth surface and a cream-tinted yellow shade, and the low-quality papad of another brand by showing how it had a lessened yellow shade and uneven textures.
Delving into the snack
From 5-star hotels like Radisson Blu, and the Taj, to supermarkets like Grace Super Market, Nilgris, and local buyers, the taste has reached a wide variety of audiences. Arshad affirms that all the recipes of the different tastes they offer including the Punjab masala, Lilka (green moong), Channa tikdi, red chilli, jeera and the normal appalams, have evolved.
“We started with the normal appalams mixing finely ground urad flour with vegetable oil. When the demand increased, the north Indian customers in Chennai and customers from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, urged us to try different varieties. With trial and error in our factory and taking constructive criticism from local buyers, we experimented with different flavours for the snack. We are now providing plenty of options,” shares Arshad.
The hotels experiment with their products; Ahmed and Arshad state that they even make tacos with their papads.
To guarantee the total product’s excellence, they purchase the highest-grade raw materials. Arshad explains, “The normal LG Kootu Perungayam of price range Rs 600-Rs 700 is replaced with Asafoetida imported from Iran that costs Rs 20,000 per kg in our products. Even though the salt is iodized, vegetable oil, urad flour, pepper, and garlic are bought locally.
They are FSSC and ISO-certified products. All the mixing and making processes are machine done, by 20 helpers at the factory, maintaining consistency throughout. For the drying process, as artificially drying might cause fungal growth on the papad, we use natural sunlight, so in the monsoons our production gets delayed. ”
Of their 30 employees, 27 are women. “Even though the orders from foreign countries like Singapore and Malaysia stopped during the pandemic, we got orders from the exporters. Since all the employees and we were living close to the factory, we managed to meet the demand,” says Ahmed.
Shahi Foods offers papads with a shelf life of four to six months, ranging in size from three-inch, coin-sized papads to seven-inch large bubbly appalams. They aspire to expand their flavour selection and make the crunchy, crackly, and tasty combination an anytime snack.