EXHIBITION AT CFTRI MYSORE:PART I

By Sangeetha Michahial - October 30, 2018

Hello viewers! I am back with another exciting article this week. Yesterday I made a visit to CSIR-CFTRI Mysore where the latest technologies developed for food products were exhibited. So come and join me as I unfold the latest in food science and technology developed by CFTRI Mysore.

CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) in Mysore was established on 21^st of October 1950 for the development of food science and technology in India. So far 300 plus technologies have been established by the institute. There are 16 R&D departments and each one of them had exhibited their best. Let me start introducing to all those departments one by one.

Food machineries:

Continuous Ragi mudde making machine:

Ragi mudde/Ragi balls is a staple food in Karnataka especially Mandya district. Recently we are all fascinated towards rice but ragi mudde still remains one of the prominent whole meals for us. Flouring the ragi millets making them into balls is very much time consuming. Hence CFTRI has cut shortened all those processes and have designed this machine which continuously serve us hot ragi mudde.

Spouted bed coffee roaster:

This machine is used to roast the coffee grains or other food grains. It uniformly roasts the grain, and easily separates the caff and dust. For the sake expo, hot and crunchy peanuts were roasted and served for all the visitors.

Hand operated Lemon cutting machine:

We might have seen various lemon chopping devices in the market, but this machine is something unique. It is a hand operated machine which can chop the lemon into 4-16 pieces easily.

Making of glass wares:

Dosa making machine:

There is an automatic dosa making unit in the department of 'technology scale-up'. It serves hot and crispy dosas/rice pancakes to the visitors.

Double effect evaporator: Used to extract sugar from sugarcane

Aroma recovery unit:

Recovers the fragrance and taste of food substances like coffee, fruits etc.

Spray drier:

This is a machine which converts liquids to amorphous powders. For example, milk to milk powder. Hot temperature and the separators filter the milk and extract the powder out of it. Coconut or other food powders can be obtained from this.

Pasta making machine:

This machine gives shape to pasta, bujjiyas, sev, muruks and other snacks. Mixed dough is subjected into the machine; respected filters have to be fixed for making each of the snacks mentioned.

Protein specialty:

Protein specialty department exhibited the importance of including proteins in our diet. Soybeans, sprouted legumes, oil seeds, Spirulina, edible rice bran and other protein rich food substances were exhibited. Their importance was neatly explained to school kids and public. Different food products made from these protein sources were also displayed which pleased the visitors. Apart from these, awareness is also created against the presence of traces amount of unavailable minerals/ phytic acid present in oil-seeds and legumes which aren’t good for us.

The department also hosted a small quiz like Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) on the topic of proteins. This was the most enthusiastic event to participate for the students of Zoology department Manasagangotri Mysore.

~to be continued…

It is my foremost duty to express my special thanks and gratitude to Dr. Raghavarao K S (director of CFTRI), Kollegala Sharma (Scientist CFTRI) and all the CFTRI members for encouraging me and providing me the necessary information.