Government has taken sufficient steps to promote research and development activities in the field of food processing.

During the last three years including the current year, 35 proposals were assisted for grants-in-aid. The R&D organizations, which have received grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, have developed technologies related to food processing sector as below: -

1. Development of Soybean/Rice bran based Nutraceuticals” of Ganesh Scientific Research Foundation, New Delhi
2. “Packaging of Jeera Puris and Banana Chips” by Indian Institute of Packaging, Mumbai
3. “Enhancing the shelf life of Banana diffusion channel” of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Post Harvest Technology Centre, Coimbatore
4. “Preservation of selected vegetable and fruits by (a) Improving quality and shelf life of minimally processed products and (b) Development of new range of Dehydrated products having superior dehydration and keeping qualities “of Karunya University Coimbatore
5. “Development of Block and Real Time PCR kits for multi-pathogen detection for application in Diary Industry” of National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal
6. “Enzyme Mediated Food Processing” of Delhi University
7. “Microwave assisted hot air and vacuum drying of fruits and spices” of IIT, Kharagpur.

The above technologies are available with the concerned R&D organizations for use by industry/stake holders.

Ministry of Food Processing Industries undertakes awareness generation activities to boost R&D activities in the sector. One such activity in the form of National Workshop on “ New Perspectives in Research and Development in Food Processing Sector was done on 29^th June, 2011  in Delhi  and “Technology for Value Creation”  was held on 17^th November,2011 at Mumbai  with the help of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). In order to promote R&D activities wide publicity is also done at regular intervals in the leading newspapers. Recently an advertisement was given on 26.10.2011 for inviting applications for R&D in Food Processing Sector.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Dr. Charan Das Mahant in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

MP: SB:CP: boost (13.12.2011)