Central institute prepares food products with longer shelf life for landslide victims

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 1 (PTI) A scientific research institute under the central government has been working without break for the last two days to prepare food items with longer shelf life for the survivors of landslides in Wayanad.

A team of scientists from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) here has converted their incubation cell for technology transfer into a food processing and production unit with more than 70 people, including research scholars volunteering to help, working in one shift to prepare 1000 packets of each food item.

They are using an exclusive technology developed by the institute to provide extra shelf life to food items like Upma, which the director said has a high protein value.

"One is upma; we increased the protein content of it by 10 per cent. And we use retort processing and retort pouches that will keep the food fresh for at least one month. Then we have poha mixed with ground nuts in dried form, which also has a shelf life of one month. We also have millet puffs for kids," C Anandharamakrishnan, director of CSIR-NIIST, told PTI.

He said the prime aim was to pack and send food items that are readily consumable and have a longer shelf life.

Anandharamakrishnan said their unit is equipped to produce more if further requirements come, and they aim to complete the first batch by Thursday evening.

"We are planning to hand over the consignment to the Thiruvananthapuram district collector by this evening," the director said.

NIIST never had a full-fledged production capability at their technology incubation cell, but they used the existing infrastructure and converted it into a round-the-clock production line.

"The retort process is a high-temperature, high-pressure process. With this process, any food item could be kept fresh for two to three months. A minimum of one month is our guarantee," V V Venugopal, head of the Department of Agroprocessing and Technology, told PTI.

He said the Poha mix does not have any moisture content, so it could be kept for longer days and readily consumed.

These food packets will be sent to the landslide-affected area through the district administration, where they will be distributed among the survivors.

The devastating landslides in Wayanad district have killed 173 people and left about 200 injured, and authorities are struggling to trace the missing and continue the rescue efforts in challenging terrain without heavy machinery to uncover debris and buried victims.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)