SATS breaks ground on India central kitchen
High demand for Indian cuisine prompted the new unit in Bangaluru (Photos courtesy SATS)
SATS Ltd. today announced that work has begun on the construction of its 20,000 square meter kitchen is located at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.
SATS announced in late July the plans for the unit in India in meet local demand. SATS’ first central kitchen in India will cost S$37 million (US$27.3 million) to build and is expected to be operational in 2023.
The kitchen will incorporate automation and smart technology to produce nutritious, tasty, safe food cost-effectively. Examples of advanced technology that will be used include an automated rice line that can produce up to 600 kilograms of different types of rice within an hour and Internet of Things (IoT) devices for monitoring food temperature.
It is the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified frozen food manufacturing facility in India with an IoT building management system to enable utility consumption to be proactively tracked and regulated. The building has MERV-13 to 16 air filtration capability and a dedicated fresh air supply receptive zone, Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) technology that uses UV-C rays to disinfect the air, and touchless operations.
The kitchen will also house an innovation center that will be connected to the SATS Innovation Hub in Singapore. The facility in India will allow partners to leverage SATS' product and packaging development strengths to innovate and introduce a variety of cuisines and products to the India market. Partners can also leverage the technical know-how of SATS on shelf-life extension food technology to reduce food wastage.
“We received good response to the news of SATS setting up a technologically innovative kitchen of this scale in India and have already started collaborating with other reputable industry players to commence piloting new product developments with strategic partners,” said Sagar Dighe, Chief Executive Officer, SATS Food Solutions India Private Limited, in today’s announcement. “These pilot projects will allow us to fine-tune our product offering across various customer segments and scale up production once our kitchen is ready.”
