CIPHET develops technology for high nutritious products from pearl millet

Ludhiana, January 29:



Now, high nutritious value extrudates, pasta, weaning mix, instant mixes for halwa and upma could be made from pearl millet . Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) has developed processing techniques under the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) on value chain composite dairy foods with enhanced health attributes.



"The products are quite comparable to commercially available products like Kurkure, puffs and infant foods available in the market. However, the products developed have more nutritional value with added advantage of fibers. Since, these products are based on pearl millet, they are also glutton free and are especially suitable for allergens and celiac patient," revealed Dr D.N Yadav, Senior Scientist at CIPHET, who has standardized these technologies, adding that upma and halwa mix has extended shelf life upto six months.



Notably, pearl millet is the staple food of low income people in arid regions of India and the country is the largest producer of the crop, both in terms of area (9.3 million hectare) and production (7.97 million tons). Pearl millet is considered as nutri-cereal due to its well-balanced protein, with high concentration of tryptophan and adequate leucine. Pearl millet possesses high iron and zinc content with better mineral profile than many other cereals.



However, the food uses of pearl millet is presently restricted to due to rancidity of flour and lack of appropriate processing technologies. "Taking the initiative, CIPHET has now standardized the technologies for development of high value food products from pear millet," added Dr D.N Yadav.



Saying that technology developed could provide viable business opportunity, Director CIPHET Dr U.S Shivhare and Head Transfer of Technology Dr Deepak Raj Rai said that the unit for production of above products could be set up with a cost from Rs 12 to 15 lakhs as initial investment. The commercialization of these products has the potential to provide stability, reliability and higher value for millet and millet products. This will also improve the income of poor farmers adopting agro food industry.
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