Sugar-free sweets set to light up diabetics’ Diwali

Narinder himself has prepared patisa and milk cake in sugar-free variety. Patisa is priced at Rs 350 a kg against Rs 150 a kg of the normal variety with sugar while sugar-free milk cake too is on the higher side compared to the variety with sugar.

He says,“The sugar-free powder is costly and we purchase it from a Mumbai-based company. So we have to add that cost to our product. However,a limited number of customers come for such products for self-consumption rather than gifting them to someone.”

Milkfed,which has displayed a variety of sweets this time,has also forayed into sugar-free territory apart from the normal variety. Sugar-free peda and gulab jamun are the varieties which are available at Verka stalls. Ajmer Singh,chairman of Verka milk plant,says,“This is a trial by Milkfed to introduce sugar-free sweets this time,though we have added other sweets in a large variety this year compared to our previous year’s stalls.”

Peda is in 200 gram and 800 gram packing while gulab jamun is available in 1.4 litre packing. Ajmer says,“Rates of sugar-free products are almost double the price of the products prepared with sugar. The 800 gram sugar-free peda is available at Rs 320 a kg as compared to Rs 160 price tag of peda with the sugar. However,our 200 gram packing is getting good response because normally people buy sugar-free sweets for self-consumption in limited quantities.”

The largest selling products in the sugar-free category are rasmalai,rasgulla and plain barfi. “Looking at the lifestyle diseases,we have to come up with more options so as to tap this segment as well,” says Narinder.