According to Prof Ram
Rajasekharan, director, Central Food Technological Research Institute
(CFTRI), Mysore, food research and development is poised to create
better quality, nutritious value-added
products, safe, attractive packaging concepts and avenues for
promising technology transfers.
He added that a visible trend
was the endeavour to garner much of the nutrition from food for
disease management and preventive health. “There is a huge demand
for organic foods, nutraceuticals and functional foods. Now the need
for innovation in food R&D empowers the scientific community.
This is because a lot of science and technology gets into creation of
food products, equipment for food processing and its packaging,” he
told F&B News in an interaction.
“We are well-prepared at
CFTRI in devising our food R&D gameplan. Both the globalisation
and the economic slowdown have generated only opportunities for
growth-driven initiatives. Funding for food research has not seen a
lull in the current economic environment either from national or
international fronts,” Prof Rajasekharan said.
“In fact, there is
substantial attention to novel processes in production to economise
time and the cost of technologies. This is primarily because food is
indispensable and there is a constant need for quality, convenience
and taste. Acceptability and awareness are the cornerstones of food
R&D. The requirement for affordable technologies, maximizing use
of indigenous ingredients and bio-friendly processes are seen to be
the future growth drivers,” said the CFTRI chief.
“The present scenario in
India and worldwide portrayed a boom in food research with increasing
investments across markets for processed foods, especially for the
traditional foods through eco-friendly technologies,” informed Prof
Rajasekharan.
There is no dearth of human
capital and technically-qualified scientific personnel to generate
potential partnerships between research institutes and industry.
The concept of food industrial
clusters could strengthen the knowledge interface and facilitate
productivity. In this regard, the CFTRI chief viewed food parks as a
viable cluster for the growth of food processing, but lamented that
many of these in the country were based on real-estate models.
“We need to change the
equity structure of food parks. The need of the hour is to assess the
potential of small, medium and large food companies coming together,
and mutually benefiting from operational efficiencies under one roof.
Food parks need to be seen as knowledge zones to create feasible
concepts in food processing and related technologies,” he added.
“Now, CFTRI is chipping its
expertise to ensure that all its machines designed and developed by
its scientific and technology experts could be used by farming and
small-medium entrepreneurs free of cost,” Prof Rajasekharan said.
“All these equipment and
processes at our pilot plants in the institute would make a
significant impact on the future of food processing in the country.
It would not just help save initial investment for entrepreneurs, but
be a learning ground on the efficiencies in operation,” he added.
“Millets are the future for
India. CFTRI has developed a number processes and value-added
products that could benefit the consumer and profit the industry,”
he pointed out.
“Therefore, CFTRI is a hub,
not just for food technologies, but also to provide standards in
nutrients for range of processed foods,” Prof Rajasekharan added.
In this context, Prof
Rajasekharan viewed the mid-day meals scheme as a programme to
prevent hunger and boost nutrition.
“CFTRI was ready to team up
with the state governments in providing the much-needed quality food
to keep much of the calorie and protein deficiencies at bay with its
advanced research in the field,” he said.
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