HYDERABAD: Food needs to contain all the right supplements our body needs. And cooking oil, well, plays an important role in food consumption. So, it is essential to weigh the benefits we get from the sort of cooking oil we toss into our food. On these lines, Bunge India Private Limited recently launched refined sunflower oil called Fiona, which has a special VitoProtect formula. Vinay Shrivastav, Vice President and Business Head, B2C, Bunge India, and Sandeep K Singh, Vice President, Sales, and CEO, Bunge India, speak about their newly launched Fiona and CE delves into this formula and its health benefits.
“This is the first homegrown product for Bunge in India. The journey started in 2021 in Karnataka. In the last three years, we have done reasonably well and widened our market to Odisha in 2023. The biggest market after Karnataka is Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. There has been an increase in consumer demand that taste and health must come together, with a strong shift towards sunflower oil. We thought it is the right time to start off in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” says Vinay. He adds that the two Telugu-speaking states accept the brand well and that Fiona with its VitoProtect is the best option.
Speaking about the health factor that is associated with the oil, Vinay says, “Unlike most regular cooking oils where vitamins are lost in the cooking process, Fiona’s VitoProtect formula ensures that there is 50% higher transfer rate of vitamins from the oil to the food. So, you get healthy and nutritious food which is supreme. We also want to be affordable to the public.”
Sandeep explains that the brand undertook a considerable amount of research to formulate Fiona oil. “We researched the effect of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on chemical, nutritional and oil absorption. We also studied the characteristics of refined sunflower oil during deep frying of food items.”
Underscoring how this oil could be a healthy choice, Sandeep says, “The genesis of Fiona as a brand was to balance health with taste and therefore, this VitoProtect formula is rich in vitamins like Vitamin A, D and E. Consumers say that the oil does not stick to the surface. People say that there is no smell or oil decay.”