Can Genuine Vegetable Parchment meet the needs and complexity of Indian cuisine?

How does Indian cooking differ from Western baking? 

It is not limited to ovens and pastries: it spans steaming, roasting, grilling, earthen pot cooking, high heat, oil, moisture, and large-scale food preparation. These methods place exceptional demands on materials, requiring consistent performance under heat, humidity, grease exposure, and mechanical stress. 

Beyond basic baking applications, the material would need to deliver clean release, resist grease migration, maintain strength when exposed to steam or moisture-rich ingredients, and remain safe for food contact as regulatory expectations evolve. 

This complexity sparked a simple but bold question: Can genuine European parchment paper perform reliably in Indian kitchens?  

Together, Ahlstrom and Oddy decided to find the answer. 

By combining Ahlstrom’s UniBake® genuine vegetable parchment technology with Oddy Ecobake’s deep understanding of Indian food preparation, the two partners re-imagined parchment paper for India: from professional kitchens and catering operations to everyday home cooking.  

The focus was on achieving a balance between release performance, grease barrier, heat resistance, and ease of handling — all without compromising food safety. 

The collaboration between the two companies was built on concrete actions: 

• Establishing a clean, local converting facility in India, offering baking paper formats tailored to Indian kitchens and cooking practices, while ensuring consistent quality and hygiene standards
• Working closely with Indian chefs, giving them complete freedom to test the paper in real cooking conditions involving oil, vapor, high temperatures, and heavy food loads
• Delivering a product that performs consistently: clean release to prevent sticking, effective grease resistance to avoid fat migration, sufficient strength to support food weight without tearing, and dimensional stability even in humid or high-heat environments
• Sharing a strong belief that sustainability and performance must go hand in hand, especially as food safety regulations increasingly move away from chemical grease-resistant treatments. 

“Indian kitchens push materials to their limits. We needed a solution that could handle heat, oil, moisture, and scale without compromise. UniBake® allowed us to deliver global quality while staying true to the realities of Indian cooking,” says Atul Garg, CEO at Oddy Uniwraps. 

From the start, the partnership was driven by mutual trust and a shared ambition to adapt excellence to local needs. This meant developing a parchment paper that supports efficient workflows — easy to handle, capable of being lightly wet to mold to pans and dishes — while enabling chefs and processors to experiment freely without the risk of liner failure or end-product waste. 

The partnership was also characterized by continuous technical exchange and transparent feedback loops, allowing rapid adjustments based on real kitchen performance. By aligning material science expertise with on-the-ground operational insight, both teams were able to translate practical cooking challenges into measurable performance requirements. This collaborative approach ensured the solution was not only technically robust, but also relevant, reliable, and scalable for the Indian market.

“This project is a perfect example of how technology and local insight come together. By working closely with Oddy and Indian chefs, we ensured that UniBake® performs where it matters most — in real kitchens, every day,” adds Sandeep Basra, Sales manager at Ahlstrom.

Today, UniBake® parchment paper is becoming part of India’s evolving culinary ecosystem — supporting baking, steaming, and high-intensity food preparation. It demonstrates that when materials are designed to combine release, grease resistance, heat performance, strength, and safe reuse when hygiene conditions allow, innovation can successfully bridge heritage and local cooking culture.

Sandeep Basra, Sales manager at Ahlstrom.