Processed food need to be made more affordable: Dr S.M Ilyas

Ludhiana, July 19:

"There is need to develop technologies for providing low cost processed food available to all sections of the society without compromising quality," said, Project Director of Distance Education National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, Dr S.M Ilyas, during the meeting of Research Advisory Committee (RAC) concluded here today at the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology. The objective of the meeting was to formulate strategies for future research and study the progress of existing projects at the institute.



Saying that we are living in age of shifting paradigms due to technological revolution, Dr S.M Ilyas, said that we need to ask the question why people hesitate to buy processed food. "There is need of technological interventions at all level including developing affordable packaging, cutting cost of transportation, providing higher density of nutrition in food," he said, adding that all researches should be carried out after keeping end consumer in mind. "At presently in packaging container is more important than content. The excessive cost spent on packaging could be brought down to provide affordable processed food for large population," he added.



Recognizing that CIPHET has achieved milestones at national level, Dr S.M Ilyas, said that the institute should now look to expand at global level. Additional Director General (Process Engineering), Dr K.K Singh, stressed the need that recommendations of RAC should be followed religiously. He listed various suggestions for speeding up research activities in the institute.



CIPHET Director Dr U.S Shivhare said that during last five years they had commercialized 26 technologies and five consultancy projects were taken up. "We got six patents and received Rs 2.2 crore for establishing food safety and quality lab," he said, hoping that deliberations of RAC would help in formulating guidelines of 12th five year plan. He also informed that institute got Rs 12.5 crore from external funding agencies for various research projects during this period. Head Transfer of Technology Division Dr D.R Rai, informed the members of RAC about action taken on recommendations of last RAC meeting.



Dr Sangeeta Chopra, Senior Scientist, coordinated the inaugural session. A team lead by Dr Ilyas also visited various reach facilities at CIPHET and appreciated technologies developed by the institute.



Prominent presented on occasion included Dr D.C Joshi, Dean, Faculty of Food Processing, Technology & Bio Energy of Anand Agricultural University; Dr B. Ranganna, Professor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; Dr P.K Pal, Head, Division of Post Harvest Technology, Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI); Dr A.M Paturkar, Professor and Head Department of Veterinary Public Health, Bombey Veterinary College; Dr T.K Srinivasa Gopal, Director Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin; Dr Maninder Arora, Head Department of Microbiology, Punjab Agriculture University; Project Coordinator (PHT) Dr S.K Nanda and Head Agricultural Structures and Environment Control (AS&EC) Division, CIPHET, Dr S.N Jha.


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