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CSIR-CFTRI despatches seven reconstitutable foods to Fani cyclone victims
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Wednesday, 08 May, 2019, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
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CSIR-CFTRI has chipped is expertise to select a combination of seven reconstitutable foods products to be supplied to the Fani cyclone-ridden areas of Orissa. The seven items are instant mixes of poha, upma, ready-to-eat upma, high-protein rusks, high-protein biscuits, long-shelf-life chapati and tomato chutney.
“The products were chosen keeping in view the Indian palate. The decision to manufacture and send rations was taken as soon as Fani hit the Indian coasts. The first consignment of 20,000 meals, which is about 2.5 tonne, was despatched within 48 hours of the calamity, May 5, 2019. The second consignment of another 20,000 meals was sent on May 6, 2019,” said K S M S Raghavarao, director, CFTRI.
“Our colleagues from CSIR’s Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, are taking care of logistics at the other end,” he added.
“We are prepared for sending 1,00,000 meals or more depending upon the feedback. The consignments will be sent by road to Bengaluru, from where Air India is helping to fly it to Bhubaneswar,” Raghavarao said.
The institute stated, “Reconstitutable versions of the poha and upma mix have shelf-lives of more than a month and so can be used as and when needed. The ready-to-eat upma is a cooked and the sterilised product that can be consumed immediately. With a shelf life of 10-12 days, it is suitable for immediate relief.”
“The rusks and biscuits are nutritive with additional protein content. Chapati is a long shelf-life one with natural preserves. In fact, it is supplied by a commercial licensee of CFTRI’s technology,” it added.
“In addition, water to drink and to reconstitute poha and upma are also included in the package. The 800-member staff and student community of the institute worked during weekends and day and night to prepare the food,” the institute said.
Earlier too, CFTRI had responded to crises in a similar way. Since 2004, when the tsunami hit the eastern coasts of India, the institute has geared up voluntarily to help the disaster struck with special relief food packages. It sent food to Uttarakhand in 2013, and to Coorg and Kerala, last year.
“We wish such calamities do not happen often, but cannot stop nature. The best we can do is to prepare ourselves to face the nature’s fury. We are suggesting the setting up of a Disaster Food Management Centre to help in such times,” said Raghavarao.
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